Of Space and Time
by Nihlus Oken
Summary: Slay the Archdemon they said, nothing will go wrong "she" said. I will never understand why the Maker has such a cruel sense of humor upon mages. But this place just seems much crueler. And now I'm stuck here. Blasted Elf. Setting: After Mass Effect and During Mass Effect 2. Rated M: for Violence further on in the story and Language. Amell with AU Origins. Hints of FemShep x Liara.
1. Whispers in the Dark

**Disclaimer: All Characters, lore, and locations of Mass Effect and Bioware belong to BioWare. The story is of my own thought,**

**Inspired by totallybursar's Stars Fade. Please for the love of all that is beautiful, read this story, Stars Fade is a work of art. I was so inspired by it.**

**Chapter Title: Courtesy of Skillet and their awesome Inspiration.**

"_Whispers in the Dark"_

_It has been a long time since I woke from a slumber as deep as this. It has been a long time since I have woken from the nightmares that plague my mind. But I try to remember why I was tripped into the Fade in the first place. _

_I remember the Tower. We had fought long and hard to make it to the top. But who is we…and why were we fighting. Who were we fighting? I tried to sit myself up on the cold like floor. My vision is blurred. I can't see anything but the dim red colored air around me. I taste stale air, as if I was in a tomb. Am I in the Deep Roads? Wait…I remember…the darkspawn...Denerim! Denerim is burning and I'm in the Deep roads?! My eyes are struggling to regain their strength. I try to move further but my body aches in pain. I try to summon a hint of magic, but to no avail, I was completely drained._

_What was I fighting…who is we? Wait…I remember. Alistair, Shale, and Maharial were there! We were all in Denerim. The Archdemon! The battle! How did I get here? Am I a prisoner? Why does the floor feel like the cold blade? This place is nothing like the roads I know of. What had happened to the battle? Did we win? Ugh my mind is in shambles. Why my memory is as poor as a nug's diet. I remember parts…more like bits though…I see Shale…slamming her stone body into the Archdemon…I see Alistair piercing the foul thing's skin with his blade…I see Maharial moving like a leaf in the wind, dodging the dragon's minions, only to send his own wrath back at them tenfold. But then I see my staff in my hands, standing over the demons head, positioned for the final blow. The Archdemon stirred, the whispers of the Taint quickly re-entering my mind. I take my strike. The staff pierces the demon's skull. And then the light engulfs me…the pain is incredible. I feel a moment of weightlessness, and then a push…I am gone. _

_What in the Maker's name happened? There are so many questions I need to ask…hopefully I can move . . . to the damn wall._

* * *

_**2184 CE**_

The tunnel that the man found himself in was dimly lit, a red light shining down from the roof. As his vision clear his environment became clearer as he struggled to move. From what he felt, most of his ribs must have been broken in some fashion. Usually he would just attempt to set and heal them himself, but his magic would not be summoned. He felt drained, tired as he finally propped himself against the wall. He looked around the dark tunnel, seeing that it was not just any tunnel. The tunnel wall behind his back and torn robe was cold to touch, the eerie tone of a hum throughout the tunnel. He saw that the tunnel was made of some sort of metal.

"_These Deep Roads must run deeper, I must be in some dwarven ruin," _he thought to himself.

The man was laid against the cold wall for two hours, trying to rebuild his mana and stamina, enough so that he could heal his ribs. He wouldn't be able to find out where he was if he couldn't move at all. But then something caught his eye.

The tunnel was not faceless, in his vision he could see barely two feet in the red dark light. The entire tunnel had brightened since his awakening. In front of him, what looked like an altar to him, small but intricate, but it was what was at the base that really caught his eyes. His bag… the bag that carried everything essential to him during the Blight, was just sitting there.

"_Why the hell didn't I notice that before?!"_ the man said, mentally kicking himself in the ass. Trying to move, as if he could, the painful reminder of his ribs came like a dagger to the spine…or the burning sensation of a Templar's cleanse. He finally was able to move slightly, getting closer and closer to the bag until he reached it, pulling it towards him while resetting himself against the wall. He quickly looked inner side of the flap of the pouch, reading the embroidered lettering.

"_Property of Nihlus Amell, Do not attempt to pass the pouches' barrier, you will spontaneously combust."_

"Ah shit…" Quickly remembering about the enchantment he had placed on it, he removed the enchantment stone from the pouch, and setting aside before this whole cave was set aflame. Why he ever had Sandal place a rune that makes things spontaneously combust was beyond him. He then quickly threw the away the thought of Sandal saying _"Enchantment," _trying to see if what he was searching remained in here. He scoured through the pockets and sleeves of the pouch. It seemed his search was for ill-fated, finding a light blue liquid under all the glass bottles and papers that were soaked with the liquid.

But he did find three, however only three, vials that had the liquid inside.

"If there is a Maker, he smiles upon me today!" he shouted.

He quickly took one of the vials and gulped down the bitter tasting liquid, feeling almost instantly rejuvenated.

"Ah Lyrium, bad for the throat, great for the soul," he said as if he downed a fine whiskey. But he quickly turned to his ribs and his other wounds, wisps of energy twirling between his fingers until they formed orbs of calm opalescence. He pressed his hands and the energy on his abdomen, feeling this magic do its work. Inside his body, the broken ribs were connecting seam by seam, until the ribs was nothing but bruised. He stopped as soon he felt the ribs literally snapped back into place. Nihlus quickly returned to his other wounds, a twisted ankle and some cuts that presented themselves more as time went on.

Nihlus dispersed the magic, letting his mana rest for the moment. He returned his thoughts to the pouch staring at the remaining vials inside. As he looked at them he thought, _"How can I ever survive on just 2 vials!? Blasted Maker has a twisted sense of humor, leaving me with two vials in some metal corridor."_

He took the pouch and sealed it, placing the rune in its one pocket without setting the trap it was again. No doubt he would possibly need it in the future, and he didn't need to be set on fire accidently . . . by himself. He tried to quickly stand up, feeling the tender ribs stretch as his back straightened. He quickly examined the rest of the patch, seeing the strap was still intact. He then reviewed himself. He saw his robes were tattered, the mantle shredded, but the majority of it was still intact. It would most likely not survive a few months travel but he had to move at some time. He strapped the pouch onto his side belt. As soon as he was satisfied with the condition of his gear, he looked at the corridor again. He saw that there were no other real fragments, not even of his staff, _Vessel._ _"The Archdemon… the energy must of annihilated Vessel," _he thought, _This is the last time I let an Elf and a swamp witch play house to stop demi-god from killing its killer's soul."_

"_And that's the last time I take the final blow… blasted elf and his games. But…I'm still alive…and this couldn't be the Fade!"_

"By Oghren's Mother's Beard!" he shouted, "Morrigan! Your mother isn't crazy after all; you should of listen to that crazy dragon lady for more often!"

As he ranted, his shouts would echo throughout the tunnel, the sound of his voice immediately bouncing off the sound reflecting walls. But as Nihlus was about to continue, he would hear a sound down the tunnel to his left. He stopped his speech, quickly trying to listen to the sounds again.

_-click-click-click-click-_

"_What in Andraste's ass?"_ he asked himself. Despite the light of the tunnel, Nihlus summoned up a wisp of light, to illuminate the tunnel even more, he looked around once more. He looked at the altar-like object again; its archaic form seemed to pique his interest. He realized the room was actually more circle-like with a dome like top and the light source form the top. The room was connected to two tunnels, one leading right and the other left. His first major decision to date;

"Left it is then . . . please let it be nugs. I've had enough of Darkspawn to last several lifetimes."

* * *

The tunnel was long and narrow, the metal walls and floor echoing his footsteps. The red light of the domed room he left had left him, the only light being from the wisp. The tunnel seemed to be unending to Nihlus. If anything it seemed to go on for hours, but it was only minutes since he started his small adventure. The wisp of light seemed to flicker as he lost his concentration at moments of time. His injuries were still tender from being reset and healed but this was not stopping him from moving. Although a limp was causing him to move more slowly than usually, sometimes magic cannot heal everything in the body. His leg was not only broken but almost shattered, when he did his sessions earlier, the bones did not set just right and he has had to conduct more and more sessions as he limped.

"_I see I found another reason why Mages have staves."_

He kept hearing the mysterious sounds continue further into the tunnel, as if whatever was making the sound was evading him. But to what point? He saw that the tunnel soon reached a corner. At that moment he saw the corner the sounds had halted. Nihlus hugged the wall and started to creep up to its edge, peering over, trying to see what was at the other side of the corner. He killed off the wisp, hoping to not be seen by whatever As he look over the edge, he saw something awfully peculiar.

Some sort of…bug? It stood on four legs, four arms that were extended to some sort of panel, and was covered in a green sickly colored carapace. The creature had either not spotted Nihlus, or it was simply ignoring him. But what interested Nihlus was the pack on the creature's back and the panel it was fiddling with. The panel was orange but transparent. Nihlus thought it was some sort of apparition, something like in the fade. But the creature's fingers pressed onto the panel, moving and shifting runes imprinted on it, from what Nihlus could make out. It bathed the creature and the tunnel in a dim orange light. The pack seemed to be made of sheets of metal but he saw no straps or anything. In pure curiosity, Nihlus threw a small spark at the creature, just enough to give it a small jolt, small enough it could only twitch a nerve. As the spark flew and landed on the creature's skin, something odd happened.

The creature paused. The spark quickly dissipated on the creature's carapace. Nihlus thought the thing was finally ready to attack or something. But the carapace started shifting, as if it was melting. As Nihlus watched on, the creature's carapace and even the pack itself was in a silver puddle.

It was…disturbing…

"Really? Not like I summoned a tempest or anything," he said while approaching further towards the puddle, turning the corner. As he reached the puddle, he noticed that the darkness of the tunnel was covering. It was a small chasm that stretch side to side endlessly, it even seemed like the chasm seemed to curve. Nihlus approached the chasm, making sure he didn't step into the puddle and slip.

"_Maker, came all this way to slip and fall to my death? Perfect idea Nihlus. Just perfect."_

As he looked over the edge of the chasm, he could see a distant light shining from the bottom.

"Wishing Flemeth taught me that dragon trick…flying would really help at the moment," he said moving his attention to the glyph panel. He took a closer look at the mysterious panel, accidently stepping into the melted insect.

"Blast, last time I wear leather soles to a battle with an Archdemon."

He took a quick look at his feet and then back to the panel, and to him he couldn't read or translate a damn thing on the panel. The runes and glyphs rolled and shifted rapidly as he tried to keep up. He noticed a repetition in the movement of the panels. Seeing an obvious pattern, like in most dwarven ruins, the Warden touched several of the glyphs. Suddenly the panel disappeared. Its orange light quickly darkening the tunnel.

But his head turned as the tunnel at the other side of the chasm seemed to shift and move. Perplexed, he stepped towards the chasm again. Under his sight, a bridge quickly extended to the other side, momentarily startling the Warden. The Warden, recovering from the small shock, took several steps onto the bridge. Seeing that it was stable enough to cross, he quickly got over to the other side. He stopped for a moment, seeing a moving circle-like glyph moving on the wall…in front of him?

"A dead end? Well that seems redundant-," quickly turning behind him, a wall shutting vertically behind him, interrupting him. Before he could lay a curse out, the room around him moved. A large grinding sound could be heard from what seemed to be outside the now enclosed room. He could feel pressure moving onto him, and Nihlus could immediately tell that the room was going up…or more like "he" was going up.

After what seemed to just be hours of going in the same direction, up, the blasted room stopped moving. Despite the length of the ride, the speed was grueling for someone like Nihlus; he immediately emptied his stomach once the room stopped.

As he composed himself, the glyph on the wall disappeared, and the wall it was placed on him moved and shifted to the side, revealing a much more…open area. Nihlus got back on his feet, moving quickly out of the enclosed death trap.

"_That's it. I refuse to ever be in small places ever again. That includes the Deep Roads."_

But the world he just stepped into was much different than he just came out of. The walls were now lit with runes and pictures, pictures he couldn't necessary make out. But once he turned a corner he would see a much larger world. He looked on, baffled by the moving masses of…people? They sure weren't darkspawn to him.

"Oh I'm definitely not in Denerim anymore."

He noticed that like him, there were humans…and some were close but not right. There were no elves, no dwarves, and no Qunari. Nothing that ever seemed too familiar. But then two figures started approaching him,

"_Make that five…and they don't look friendly,"_ he thought to himself. He began moving slightly back to where he came, but then he could see a clearing. He saw something descend from the sky, the capsule like object opened, and four more figures appeared, two were humans for sure. The other two had a scaly like skin covered by some carapace, looking and even sounding like birds. The humans and the birds were talking to each other, but he couldn't understand either of them, it was like the humans were speaking a language he never heard of. Tons of information was racing through his head and it was getting a little too much. Nihlus started to survey the other figures, all of them were clad in blue, the humans in a cloth and the birds had something similar to armor. There was one female…blue and had…tentacles on her head. To Nihlus she could have just been an abomination or even a new Darkspawn.

The figures circled him, taking things off their belts and backs. When the objects started shifting and unfold and when the "people" started pointing them at him, one word popped in his mind.

"Weapons," he said.

One of the humans tilted his head and quickly said something, something Nihlus could finally understand.

"C-Sec Security! Put your hands where we can see them! Identify yourself!" the white-skinned human said.

Nihlus just looked at the man, wondering what to say. He raised his voice, answering "Question me not, guard. I'm on Warden Business! Tell me, where is the nearest Thaig? Why are Human guards be in the Deep Roads? Where's your Legionnaire guide? And what is that...that thing!?" he said pointing to the bird-like creature next to to the human. To himself at least, he sounded like an idiot. Although it was true that where ever he was there was no true sky. He hadn't seen anything, so it would be a good guess that he was in the Deep Roads. But there was no way in the Fade that they even knew what he was talking about.

"Sir, we will not ask again, Put your hands in the air, drops to your knees and put your hands on your head! Now!" another human, with a slight accent said.

_"Orlesian?" _he thought to himself as the group still circled around him. Their obvious weapons looked nothing like he'd ever saw. _A crossbow maybe? Seems very likely...but I don't see where the bolts would go. I didn't see them load any in," _he said to himself.

"Sir we can do this the easy way or the hard way." a gruff human voice said. It was one of the humans behind him. The man had an aged face and blonde hair. From the look of him he was definitely military.

_"You know, people shouldn't really give me those kind of options. I tend to do it the hard way," _he thought again.

Nihlus didn't like feeling trapped, it reminded him of situations with the Templars…with Jowan and Lily. Nihlus always had his companions to count on, every one of them from start to finish. But no he was alone. But he wasn't without help.

He reached his hands into the air as the human said, quickly scavenging the rune from his pouch. The human in front of him, approached him as he started lowering to his knees. But as the human male reached towards his wrist, he would basically do everything in his ability to be free.

Nihlus took the man's wrist, quickly rising up and striking the man in the face and bending the wrist, hearing the bone snap. His ventures and exposure to the Arcane Warrior phylactery in the Brecilian was truly paying off. He then threw the man towards the group in back of him, throwing the rune at the armored bird. The rune bounced off the armor of the bird. The group of guards looking stunned, the bird reached down and picked the rune up. As Nihlus stood there and watched the creature, it examined the rune by moving its three fingers against and around it. But the rune had now started to glow.

The eyes and mandibles that Nihlus could tell were in the state of shock when the rune final worked its magic, the creature instantly having flames burst upon its figure. The creature writhed in noises and vocals Nihlus couldn't even imagine. As the rest of the group backed up, Nihlus felt something crack onto the back of his skull. As his body limped forward to ground, his vision began to blacken. He looked at the burning body of the dead creature. The rune now lying on the ground. The blue female took her foot and crushed the small pebble. He looked up, before the heel of her boot met his face.

"_Shit."_

* * *

_**2185 CE**_

The dark room glowed from the light of a thousand suns, ever changing like the galaxy around him.

The Illusive Man took several inhales as he stared into the sun's massive form. The lifeblood of the galaxy right in front of him, from the material generated by the sun would fuel the future of the ever expanding galaxy. A galaxy that would find itself victim to an enemy, an enemy that dwarfs the power of the solar giant a thousand fold. But there was one who proved to be even stronger. Despite the odds, she survived and became a hero, and gave humanity its proven ascendance onto the galactic stage. She would even show death that even she can't be taken from this galaxy, with a little help of course.

The room then showed an opposite light, coming from the interior of the room. The Illusive Man looked towards the glowing base of the communicator as his console pinged several times. An image started appearing, the faded and blue pieces forming and shifting to form a more complete image. There stood a woman, brunette, with an armor completely engulfing her figure. Her eyes, a deep brown peered towards the Illusive Man, her eyes saying:

"_What the hell do you want?"_

The Illusive Man stepped closer to the QEC base, directly facing the woman in question, continuously inhaling the smoke of the cigarette in his hand. And then he began to speak.

"Shepard…we have a development."

**(A/N: Well guys, here is my first ever crossover and my first full length story that I intend to go further along with. If you need more insight to Nihlus, you can read my story Vigilance which is under the Dragon Age category. I didn't feel like following the Origins story. Its long, predictable, and overly done in all nature so instead I will be providing something called the Author's Codex. If someone asks a question that needs to be answered, I will post an Author's Codex to answer those questions. So Please Read and Review and wait for more! Here's the first Codex!)**

**Author's Codex**

**Although known as the Hero of Ferelden, Nihlus Amell is also known as Apostate, a maleficarum, friend of High King Duran Aeducan, savior of Kinloch Hold, caretaker of the Dalish, and most importantly, Warden. The Warden, along with the Warden's Maharial, and Alistair, survived the Fall of Ostagar. With the nation of Ferelden in chaos after the death of its king, the Grey Wardens took it upon themselves to not only fight the darkspawn but to also restore the kingdom. He met many companions along with his fellow Wardens; Morrigan the Witch of the Wilds, Leliana the Bard, Zevran the assassin, and Sten the Qunari Vanguard. The Warden was known for gaining allies in Mages, elves, and even the Dwarves themselves. By curing the elves by releasing the werewolves from their curse by Zathrian, he secured the Dalish support. During his adventures in Redcliffe, he met a young apostate child by the name of Connor, a son of ****Arl Eamon Guerrin. His powers flooding the town, the mage warden led his companions to Kinloch Hold, quickly resolving a recent outbreak of demons and revoking the Rite of Annulment. After saving Connor, the mage took it upon himself to find a cure for the illness that was inflicting the Arl, and illness conceived by his once friend Jowan.**  


******Dealing with Dragon cults, high dragons, and the arrival of a new companion, Shale the Golem, Nihlus returned to Redcliffe and saved the Arl. The Arl gave his support to the Warden, in hopes of uniting the lands away from the new Regent, Loghain, the traitor of Ostagar. The Warden then journeyed to the Frostback Mountains once more, the Warden journeyed into the Deep Roads to get support from the King of Orzammar. But due to the death of the recent king, the Warden journeyed into the political, criminal and eventually the dusty innards of Dwarven society. After dealing with political strife of the two leaders, Bhelen, the youngest son of the king, and Harrowmont, the kings trusted Advisor. The Warden placed his support with Harrowmont, and then journeyed into the Deep Roads. He then met Oghren the berserker, a drunken dwarf who was mighty fine with an axe.**

******Searching for their Paragon Branka was the easy part. But deciding the fate of Caridin's secrets of the Golems, was tougher. But in the end, Branka was killed and Caridin was freed from his torment. With a crown in hand, they journeyed back to Orzammar. But along the way, they recovered the middle child of the Aeducan king, Duran. After his banishment, he managed to survive an onslaught of Darkspawn and joined up with a large group of the Legion of the Dead. Finding out that Bhelen was trying to grab for power, the mage convinced the Dwarf to return to Orzammar and claim his place. In the Senate Assembly, Bhelen's lies finally came out, and Duran with advisement from Harrowmont, was named High King of Orzammar.**

******With his allies in hand, the Warden now had Loghain to deal with. After much work and torment, the Warden challenged Loghain at the Landsmeet and defeated him in single combat. Despite many objections, the Warden spared Loghain, making him join the Wardens, and placing Alistair, the rightful successor, and Queen Anora on the throne of Fereldan. Now with Five Wardens, himself, Loghain, Maharial, Alistair, and the Warden Prisoner Riordan, they would combine the armies of Ferelden and march onto the burning city of Denerim, and go on to slay the Archdemon, once and for all. And end the Blight...although not without a cost.**


	2. Comatose

**Disclaimer: ****All Characters, lore, and locations of Mass Effect and BioWare belong to BioWare. The story is of my own thought.**

**Inspired by totallybursar's Stars Fade. Please for the love of all that is beautiful, read this story, Stars Fade is a work of art. The writing is superb!**

**Chapter Title: Courtesy of Skillet for their awesome inspiration.**

* * *

"_Comatose"_

_**2184CE**_

As the officers looked upon the two bodies, one horribly burned and the other knocked out by the butt of Bailey's rifle, they just turned to each other, trying to figure out what happened. The brown skinned human name started to speak, looking at the turian below him.

"Damn it Kalo... Why didn't you just cuff him…?"

The blonde haired human stepped over the human's body and began to take his arms, the man still unconscious from the blow, and cuff them behind his back. He then then began to frisk the man, taking off the bag off the man's waist. He lifted his eye brow in question, "_why the hell would someone have something like this nowadays? This looks like something you'd find in a flea market on Earth."_ He then looked towards asari officer in front of him, who was setting up C-Sec tapes and securing the scene. "Korla, I need you to take this into evidence, I need to know where this man came from."

"Don't know why sir. The kid should be slapped with a needle for what he did to Kalo," she replied approaching the man and taking the bag, sealing it in an evidence bag.

"Lieutenant Bailey?"

"What is it Ilias?" Bailey replied to the man behind him, the man who had tried to arrest the young warden, who was now deep in dreamland on the floor of one of Zakera's Wards busiest floors.

"Was this my fault? Did this guy choose me over Kalo? Just because I'm human?"

"Shit, Son. If a racist is a racist then that's problem." Bailey said. Rising up and facing Ilias, "We don't know what set him off, and I'm not having Citadel News all over this, we keep this quiet and low. Now get to work and find out who he is."

"Yes sir…" Ilias said, quickly pulling out his Omni-tool, the tool flickering as the scanner moved over the man's figure. But to the officer, the weirdest thing occurred."

_Error. Cannot conclude identification, unregistered entry onto the Citadel. No Omni-tool identified. _

"Sir? This guy has no Omni-tool, and there's nothing identifying him."

"Shit…a John Doe," Bailey muttered, "Alright here's the plan: Get your asses in gear and diverge all foot traffic. We can't let anyone see this."

All the officers stood at attention, saluting Bailey with confident, "Yes Sir!" As Bailey took another look over the scene, a medical transport and started to retrieve Kalos' body, taking in great care that the burnt flesh didn't stick and ripped from the floor. Bailey looked over to the wall of the forum they were standing in; the only way to get to this place would be from the hallway they were currently standing in.

"_Only way this guy could be walking around and just happen to appear from nowhere is from…the Keeper tunnels! But that's not possible, that entrance is only accessible to the Keepers themselves, no one has a clue to actually get in this sector, let alone getting out of it. Damn ant tunnels more like it."_ Bailey mentally said.

As he did, the medics started to lift the new prisoner into the transport, right next to the now dead turian. The man was still silent, his stomach facing the stretcher that the medics laid him on and moved into the transport. Bailey approached the one medic and started to say,

"Take the prisoner to Sarawak's Mental Sanatorium, this man's unstable, and we need some actual answers. Tell Dr. Finnegan I expect answers when we get there," he said, glaring at the salarian in front of him.

"Of course sir, right away sir," the salarian said agitatedly. The asari officer quickly came over to the two gave the salarian the bagged . . . bag that was on the man.

"Shit… This is going to be a shit load of paper work," Bailey whispered to himself, "Someone get that fricking camera out of here!"

"Khalisah Bint Sinan al-Jilani, Westerlund News. Lieutenant Bailey!? Is it true you just assaulted a man who was acting in self-defense?! Is it true that you set fire to your own officer in order to cover up your arrest of a human!?"

"Officer, get her out of here!"

"With pleasure, sir!" the asari said, quickly approaching the reporter with great haste. When the asari got in front of Khalisah, the reporter tried to push the officer out of the way of her and her camera pod. The asari responded, a response that happened to involve a kick in the gut.

As the human woman slumped to the ground, gasping for air, holding her sides and abdomen, the asari spoke gruffly, saying;

"Oops, guess you ran into me."

* * *

_**2184CE: Recorded conversation: Asclepius Cell to Cronos Overcell**_

Operative Finnegan: "Sir, Operative Finnegan reporting."

Illusive Man: "Report Asclepius."

OF: "Sir I received a new patient today."

IM: "Your point Asclepius?"

OF: "Sir this man appeared out of nowhere here on the Citadel, hours after the blackout according to C-Sec?"

IM: "And this man is of importance because?"

OF: "Sir this man may give us more information on the inner working of the Citadel, in fact, that's why I was assigned to this Cell sir, to find information from interesting people."

IM: "And has this man answered any of the 'Important' or 'Interesting' questions that you have no doubt been asking?"

OF: "Unfortunately…the man had to be sedated. He threw several men and broke his restraints…I fear any questioning of him might be slow to actually make out. But there's much more sir, he's being charged with the death of C-Sec officer. I'm telling you sir, I have a hunch."

IM: "Hmm…I'll use my contacts to sever the charges. Udina should be able to get them dropped. Move the patient to one of our more secured areas. But I will be monitoring your actions strictly; I'm not an easy man to be impressed."

OF: "Sir…if I may… C-Sec found footage of him appearing out of a Keeper Tunnel. They also used small drones to scout the tunnels of the sector they found him in; you know of Sector 15, they found the remains of what appears to be a destabilized Keeper. I think they are connected."

IM: "I stand corrected, continue your current orders, and move your operations to Sight Eidyia. Find what you can. I expect results. Illusive Man signing off."

_Connection Terminated. . . . ._

"Well," the man started to say pressing a key to his Omni-tool, opening a comm link, "All operatives, proceed to the loading bay, Skeleton crew is to be placed on payroll. Operative Keenan, proceed to load Patient Icarus to the transport. We are heading out to Sight Eidyia." The man grinned under his mask, staring at the man inside the small room, restrained in a strait jacket, asleep.

"Oh he'll get results alright, you my fortunate son, will push humanity to greater understanding. I don't know how you got in those tunnels, but trust me, I know how to work a needle," the doctor said, chuckling under his breath as he walked away from the cell. Inside the room, the sound of muffled banging against the padded walls was overfilling the room. In vain the man inside was struggling, eyes wide open, fully aware from awakening from his sedated sleep. In his rage, the man was able to get up, literally sprinting towards the metal door frame, staring outside the clear small window. He tried to shout, but from the outside, no sound would be heard. But several shadows appeared in front of the window and the sound of a lock was faintly heard. As the door started to open, the man backed into the farthest corner of the rectangle room. As the door opened, a man started to speak;

"So it's Nihlus? I hear that's a turia- _OOF!_" was the sound the man made when Nihlus ran towards the front man, kicking his feet up and pushing, and making contact with the man's chest. As the man fell backwards and landed on the other men and women behind him, Nihlus fell on his back, cursing loudly as one of his healed ribs came undone, the break was new but it still hurt like a dragon's burn. Unlike the walls, the floor wasn't padded; a horrible mistake for a professional sanatorium, the point of such rooms was to pacify violent patients, not to give them a combative advantage.

As Nihlus writhed in pain, the assistants and nurses came quickly to him, holding him down, the nurse opening of medi-gel sedative, in her Omni-tool. As the sedative start to take effect, an orb of swirling energy flew into one of the men, tossing him accordingly against one of the padded wall. But the man soon landed on the hard floor, and the sedative finally took hold, his fighting would cease, and he went limp.

One of the assistants backed off to check the man who was thrown, checking his pulse and his bio-stats on the Omni-tool, and saying;

"Shit, Keenan is dead….this fuck is a biotic!"

"Great," the nurse said, "Now we have a biotic that can kill with a simple throw, Finnegan's ego just got bigger."

"Hah just wait until this guy's interrogation, once Finnegan gets pissed off enough I'm sure he'll just pass it to the other cells, I hear Lazarus needs new biotic test subjects."

"Shut up Cant," another said, "we got to get this psycho to the loading bay. Now everyone, HEAVE!"

* * *

_**2185CE**_

Shepard always thought of herself as a paragon, a paragon that was willing to do anything to finish the mission. In the end, all of her actions, before Saren, before the Conduit, before Sovereign, made her who she was, and it hurt her. She was a spacer, always in on the move with her mother, always fighting, and always prepared. But after her death, that great void, which felt like it last for two seconds, lit up and she found herself working with one of the most notorious terrorist organizations, Cerberus. She owed them, for her life, for her ship, and for her resolve, the resolve to fight the Reapers once more. But at the moment, she didn't have to like it but she needs someone that was willing to listen, someone that gave her the ability to fight. To her it felt like the Skyllian Blitz and the Raid of Torfan all over again. But was that was all this was? Reliving the glory days? No it wasn't, this was to save the galaxy for God's sake! This was a fight for survival of the human race from the Collectors.

But it was only a week since Horizon, Cerberus and its smoke and shadows. And it was only a couple hours since she went down to Illium, to find more specialists for her crew, she had managed to find the assassin, Thane, but the justicar, Samara was still unknown, it would probably be days before Cerberus tracked her down. But Illium;

"_If only we had that night... Why did the mission have to come first, why do I always have to over achieve on everything? I hope…that she knows that I'm truly back and tha-"_

"Commander, we have incoming message from the Illusive Man on the QEC channel."

"Fuck. . ." she whispered to herself, "Alright Joker, on my way." Shepard took off her recon hood, tussling her hair through her hands from the uniform shape it took form the hood. Her armor felt battered from the Eclipse gunfire at the Dantius Towers. She stood up and walked towards the elevator, passing her office and the fish tank and towards the elevator.

The elevator ride was long as usual. Passing through the CIC of the new SR2 Normandy, the Commander passed through the armory, where Jacob solemnly saluted her. She dropped off her hood to be repaired, one of the optics had been blown out during the last mission, and luckily she didn't lose an eye over it. While Jacob immediately took to repairing the piece, Shepard departed for the conference room.

_Logging you in Shepard,_ the ship's AI, EDI, said. Shepard strolled into the room as the conference table folded into the flooring, the bright orange circle of the QEC was extending out around her. When the image started to come up, she could clearly see the so called "Illusive Man" in her vision, smoking those same damned cigarettes. Freshly in her mind, she remembered Horizon clearly, and she could only think;

"_What the hell do you want?!"_

"Shepard…we have a development," the Illusive Man said.

"_A development? Is this another Horizon or does he means that Cerberus actually did something useful for once?" _she said to herself "The last time we had a 'development' was when we you sent me off to Horizon blindfolded with a knife in my back," she sneered.

"Shepard, I gave you the mission parameters, you knew what the costs were going to be," he replied.

"Bullshit! Next time you hold something back from me, I'll make it my job to make your life a living hell….and to bury you," she said, angrily pointing her finger towards the hologram vision of the Illusive Man. "I need to know I can trust you. Prove it now."

"Very well, Shepard. This 'development' is essential to our presence in the galaxy."

"If I'm correct, a lot would benefit from your 'absence.'" She replied, using the Turian Councilor's famous air quotes.

"Well, you wouldn't," he jokingly replied. It was not unusual for the Illusive Man to get under her skin, she was a shy person when it came to people but she rarely broke out of her skin when talking to those out of her clique, especially higher-ups. The Illusive Man made her skin crawl whenever he spoke with her, it gave her an uneasy untrusting attitude whenever dealing with him.

"So…what do you want?" she said with spite.

"Two days ago, we lost contact with one of our cells, _Asclepius."_

"Wait a moment! The Greek god of medicine?! What the hell kind of stunt are you pulling now?" she yelled out.

"I'm glad you know your history Shepard, but if you want me to be more transparent, I suggest you listen to what I have to say," he said with a smile. She immediately clammed up, _"Bastard loves this…might as well get it over with..it might actually be important…" _she sighed to herself.

"_Asclepius_ was formed as a watch group, an analysis team to study unstable subjects on the Citadel. Its cover remains as a legitimate sanatorium, where we do legitimate work. However, persons of interest are…intercepted by an operative we have in place at the sanatorium."

"And what does this have to do with me?" the commander asked.

"Like we said, we lost contact with the cell, but we may have a cause for it. A year ago, there was a blackout across several of the wards on the Citadel. Investigations lead to a small malfunction, no other incidents has been reported. Except for one," he took a small puff of the cigarette, and continued, "A man appeared about of Sector 15 of the Keeper tunnels, tunnels that are only accessible to the Keepers themselves. None of the other species have been able to find the cause of the inaccessibility."

"Again I'm not finding where I come in," Shepard mentioned, obviously irritated from just being called by the Illusive Man."

"Luckily, C-Sec detected an unidentified subject in that Sector; this man has no identity, and no record in the Alliance. Also, C-Sec arrested him for killing an officer, and they sent him directly to the sanatorium," the man said.

"Let me guess, Cerberus intercepted him," Shepard guessed.

"Good guess, we did. No one has ever been in those tunnels, and with the Citadel the Reapers would have blindsided us if Sovereign succeeded. Cerberus and humanity needs to know more about the Citadel, and we thought it was best to proceed if we investigate the matter."

"And what? You think this guy has something to do with the place going dark?"

"We doubt it; our information tells us he was heavily sedated. But we do believe, a Krogan Warlord, Fallik, has decided to march against Cerberus. We believe he is on the Citadel and is responsible for the loss of contact. We would like you to handle the situation. Attempts to recover _Icarus _would be most fortunate. Good Luck Shepard." And with that, the QEC connection was lost, and the hologram emitter started to shifted move back into the ground.

_Logging you out, Shepard_.

"Thank you EDI, Joker, set a course for the Citadel, tell Kasumi and Garrus to get their asses in gear. We have a job to do," she said in her headset.

"_Maybe I can get a shower in befor-"_

"Aye, Commander. Setting course for the Widow System. ETA 20 hours."

"Thank God for the Terminus Systems…" She said, stepping out of the Conference room, heading back to the armory to check on her hood.

* * *

_**2185CE: Citadel, Zakera Ward, Sight Eidyia.**_

Burning halls, smoke and ash in the air, bangs and pops heard in the distance, nothing could best describe what looked like a battlefield. A door was thrown off its hinges landed and banging against the opposite wall. Several men and women ran through the door's frame. A man stepped out, energy searing off his own body. He stared at the fleeing humans in the hallway and shouted;

"I will show you why Mages are feared!" A red hot ball of flame formed in his hands and quickly launched towards the fleeing group. The fire soon engulfed them, and the man simply stood there, looking down, whispering to himself;

"_Magic exists to serve man, and never to rule over him. _

_Foul and corrupt are they_

_Who have taken His gift_

_And turned it against His children._

_They shall be named Maleficar, accursed ones._

_They shall find no rest in this world_

_Or beyond."_

* * *

_**(A/N: And there is the second chapter everyone hope you enjoy! We'll be getting to the stories actually mixing in the next few chapters. The next chapter will be mostly on Nihlus's side. Remember, reviews are like cookies! Sweet and everyone wants one! But first, here's Shepard's origin! Be warned I did take liberty to mess with her backstory a little. I mean, this is a crossover so its automatically an AU.)**_

**Author's Codex**

**Lieutenant Commander Celestine "Celest" Shepard**

**Systems Alliance N7 Operative**

**Service NO. 5923-AC-2826**

**Citadel Council Special Tactics and Reconnaissance**

**2154-2183, 2185-**

**Lieutenant Commander Celestine Shepard was born in New York City, New York, United North American States on Earth in 2154CE. Shepard was exposed to uncontained element zero at the age of 11 months. However, no medical troubles arise and the young Shepard is determined to be "healthy" Despite an absent father, her mother Hannah Shepard had taken her to raise Shepard abroad multiple starships serving the Alliance Navy. At the age of 14 in 2168, her most recent home, the SSV Trenton was attacked by Batarian slaver ships above the colony Mindoir. During this attack, the young Shepard was interning as an engineer and was immediately exposed to element zero for a second time after a Batarian weapon had penetrated the mass effect drive's containment shields. Despite risking her life, the Shepard was able to reestablish containment of the drive, and the Trenton was able to hold until reinforcements arrived. In 2170, another attack occurred on Mindoir, one which was repelled by Alliance Forces. Hannah Shepard, now serving aboard the SSV Einstein, is decorated for freeing the system once more. Three years after the 2168 attack, Shepard was diagnosed with increasingly manifestation of biotic abilities, and is fitted with L3 Systems Implants. After a year of biotic stabilization, Shepard joins the Alliance military in 2172 on her birthday at the age of 18 years old.**

**In 2176, Batarian-funded pirates invade the Human colony Elysium, what is now called the Skyllian Blitz. While unaware of the current invasion, the SSV Trenton entered the system and assisted the colony world. Shepard, now a fully trained marine and deployed on the Trenton, helps ground forces repel the slaving forces. Decorated with the Star of Terra for her actions on Elysium, Shepard then leads a raid on a Torfan, a moon with a large pirate bunker. Shepard immediately leads a ground team despite her commanding officer's orders, into the bunker in 2178. Fully utilizing her biotic abilities, Shepard and her team eliminate every pirate and slaver in the base, Shepard, are given the name, "The Wraith of Torfan." After the raid, and being recommended, Shepard enters the Interplanetary Combative Training. Subsequently, Shepard receives N1 designation, and in 2180 receives N7 designation. In 2183CE, Shepard becomes the Executive Officer of the SSV Normandy, a joint engineering project of Turian and Human design, under Captain David Anderson, a fellow N7 graduate.**

**During its trial run, the crew of the Normandy is assigned for routine shake-down run on the colony world of Eden Prime, to retrieve a Prothean artifact. The colony is seen to be attacked by an unknown large force of mechanical AI known as the Geth. Despite the destruction of the Prothean Beacon, along with the saving of the colony and the death of the SPECTRE Nihlus Kryik the commander returns to the Citadel Council and pins the blame of the attack on another SPECTRE, Saren Arterius. Not impressed with the commander's current evidence, the Council drops the charges on Saren. However, recruiting the help of a Krogan Bounty Hunter, Urdnot Wrex, a C-Sec Detective, Garrus Vakarian, and a quirky engineer on her pilgrimage, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, the commander finds evidence on Saren's involvement in the attack of Eden Prime and the Eden Prime War officially begins. To hunt down Saren, the Council gives Commander Shepard SPECTRE status, the first human SPECTRE and humanity would give its first SPECTRE its finest marvel of engineering, the Normandy itself, to utilize to find Shepard. However, during the evidence hearing also proved an asari matriarch's involvement, Matriarch Benezia. Along with Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Williams and Staff Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko, the commander leads the team on the volcanic planet Therum to retrieve the matriarch's daughter, Dr. Liara T'Soni. After recovering the doctor, Liara assists Shepard in interpreting the Prothean Vision she had received on Eden Prime, through the use of asari melding. **

**Leading through the trails of evidence Saren was leaving, the Commander and her crew, stopped and track down Matriarch Benezia on Noveria, and releasing the Rachni Queen on the whims of a promise to stay hidden. On Feros, Shepard saved the colony of Zhu's Hope and met and killed the Thorian. With the aid of the captive Shiala, an acolyte of the now deceased Matriarch Benezia, Shepard was given the Cipher, a codex to the Prothean languages. Still needing more information to the vision, Shepard tracked down Shepard to the krogan cloning facility on Virmire. Avoiding a confrontation with Wrex, Shepard infiltrated the facility and found another beacon. But she was contacted by the sentient starship, or Reaper, who Saren designated Sovereign. During the conversation, Shepard finally learned that Saren planned to bring the Reapers to destroy all life in the galaxy. However, Saran and Sovereign return to Virmire and confront Shepard's team. In a last ditch effort, Shepard and her team implemented a fusion core of Salarian STG ship as a nuclear device. However, in order to protect the nuclear device from Saren, Shepard made the decision to sacrifice Kaiden Alenko, who was protecting a disarmed anti-air tower, and saved Williams. After the death of Kaiden, Shepard vowed to end Saren's life. Returning to the Council with the location of the Conduit on Ilos, the Normandy was grounded by Ambassador Udina, by request of the Council, in order to stray off war with the Terminus Systems. With the help of David Anderson, Shepard reclaims the Normandy and sails off for Ilos. There, Shepard, with the help of the Prothean VI Vigil, follows Saren through the Conduit, a back door mass relay to the Citadel that was invented by the Protheans. Vigil also detailed that the Citadel is actually a giant Mass Relay, originally designed by the Reapers as a trap to harvest the galaxy and that the galaxy is the victim to millions if not billions of years of cycles, harvesting cycles that occur every 50,000 years and the great lengths the Protheans went to prevent it from happening again.**

**At the Citadel, the Council Defense Fleet and the Council abroad the Destiny Ascension are faced against not only a Geth Fleet, but the power of Sovereign. Scaling the Presidium Tower, Shepard and her team attempt to reach the Council Chambers, but as they do Sovereign takes command of the station, and begins to fulfill his duty as vanguard of the Reaper, closing the Citadel's arms. At the Council Chambers, Shepard comes face to face with Saren. As Saren begins to fall more and more into Sovereign's indoctrination, Shepard finally cracks Sovereign's hold on the Turian SPECTRE. The turian, realizing that he betrayed everything he once fought for, the security of Citadel Space, tries to take his own life, but it is Shepard who takes the final shot, that ends Saren's blight. Soon as Shepard had the arms open, Alliance ships poured through the Widow Relay, saving the Destiny Ascension, at bequest of Shepard, realizing that she had a duty to protect all of the Council races, not just humanity as many would intend her to do. Even if it meant saving the leaders that spited her every step of the way. But still Saren was alive, through the use of Sovereign's implants, and Sovereign assumed control over the dead SPECTRE. **

**But it would only end with Saren's second death. As the demon laid dead, so too its master, Sovereign, exerting too much control into Saren's corpse, caused its powerful kinetic barriers to falter. And thus, the Reaper was killed by the combined effort of Humanity and the other races. The galaxy was safe, but at what cost, and for how long?**

**Due to Shepard's actions, the Council awarded humanity its long-sighted goal of obtaining a seat on the Council, and for Shepard, Savior of the Citadel, to decide its Councilor. Shepard chose her once captain, David Anderson to be the councilor. As remnants of the Geth fleet still floated through the Terminus Systems, Shepard was given the task of finding and eliminating any Geth resistance. In 2183CE a few months after the Battle of the Citadel, Commander Shepard was determined to be killed in action in a surprise attack by an unknown ship, Humanity's Sentinel was dead. **

**In 2185CE, non-confirmed video footage of Commander Shepard on the space station Omega spreads through the extranet.**


	3. Stricken

**Disclaimer: All Characters, lore, and locations of Mass Effect and BioWare belong to BioWare. The story is of my own thought.**

**Inspired by totallybursar's Stars Fade. Please for the love of all that is beautiful, read this story, Stars Fade is a work of art. The writing is superb!**

**Chapter Title: Courtesy of Disturbed for their awesome inspiration.**

* * *

"_Stricken"_

_**2184CE: Citadel, Zakera Ward, Sight Eidyia.**_

Finnegan wasn't truly an evil man, he was simply pragmatic. Cerberus was simply the best way of putting his talents to good use. Finnegan was an actually a licensed therapist, but was also a military interrogator for the Alliance. After the First Contact War and countless patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, the good doctor found a calling, interrogating prisoners of war, or criminals that the Alliance had captured, specifically during the Skyllian Blitz. Dealing with the troubles of those who fought at Shanxi hardened Finnegan at an early point of his career. Most of the information secured through his techniques would eventually lead to the Raid of Torfan, however, the doctor and his associates at the time did not acquire information leading to the pirates at Torfan's reinforced bunker. While the Batarian funded slavers were surely a threat to humanity, the doctor found himself wondering whether or not it was giving humanity the edge it really needed.

At 57 years old, the man had become not only renowned for his methods of interrogation, but his research into emotional connections to biotic gave him notice to the Illusive Man. So in 2179, a year after the Raid of Torfan, Cerberus offered the doctor a lead position to Project Asclepius. The project was meant to survey and observe rare individuals that could provide benefit humanity's evolution. But it was also another focus into biotic research, as many of the doctor's methods required meant extreme restraints, including biotic suppressing drug cocktails on biotic _samples._

However, as the head of Project Asclepius, Finnegan was directly in charge and only reported to the Illusive Man, but this also meant he had a responsibility to impress the Illusive Man. But ever since Sovereign's attempt to bring back the Reapers and the late Commander Shepard's death, his Project was technically postponed, due to the massive flow of funding heading to the Lazarus Project, funding Finnegan was willing to kill for in order to do some real research. Ever since Sovereign, he knew that the Reapers existed for real. But humanity needed proof. His ability to lead the Project had been starting to deteriorate, but now, he was handed his funding, and the strength of humanity. This young troubled person was a prime example of biotics through initial testing, but proved to be exceptionally dangerous. But to Finnegan, the only thing that was important was that he had to use this man as an answer to a question? But which question?

* * *

As the tall man entered the bright room, Nihlus could only look up, from his position in the corner. He woke up several hours before, blinded by the light reflecting off the walls of the room. He first thought he was in a glass room, or even dead. But tapping the paneling of the floor and even creating a little flicker of magic assured his mortality. But it was strange that his magic didn't conjure up something more, well vibrant.

Nihlus couldn't discern what was keeping him from just burning the room from the inside out but he could move. He moved towards the corner of the room, couching his back towards the corner, digging his face into his arms.

"_Twice I have found myself in a corner, hazed out of my blighted mind….What the hell am I doing? Whatever these….are these Templars? They're the only ones who suppress magic like this…oh those bastards stole my pouch," _he thought to himself, struggling with massive migraine, that the light from the room and whatever the "Templars" did to him. After an hour of thinking and talking to himself, a sound caught his own attention. Nihlus immediately looked at one of the walls. The room itself was fairly large, much larger than his previous host's. The wall started to shift and moved outward from the inside of the room, creating a frame for something like a door. The piece then split into and seemed to have moved into sides of the new frame.

A man stepped into the doorway, and to Nihlus, he looked like an elder. But no matter that he was an elder; Nihlus recognized the face from outside the window of his first holding in this blighted hell he stepped into.

The man walked over to Nihlus, an orange light engulfing the man's arm.

"_A mage?" _the warden thought to himself, _"I must be in a circle…bastard if I was them, I would make me tranquil as fast as possible. They don't care. Even if they know I'm a Warden, which they should, I mean, I killed the Archdemon…at least I think I did?"_ The in front of Nihlus began to speak, but not to Nihlus, but to the light around his arm.

"Subject appears distraught, likely a side effect to the neural cocktail applied for restraint," the man spoke. Nihlus looked at the man directly, glaring at him, sparks of energy, small amounts, but still a presence of magic was in him. He could take on this Templar if he had to…there are other means.

"_But would I stoop so low? . . . No…sadly…I wouldn't."_

Hitting the record button on his Omni-tool, the doctor began to speak, "Dr. Donnelly Finnegan presiding, 2184CE, Project Asclepius, Interview Zero-One, Subject Icarus. Subject appears distraught, likely a side effect to the neural cocktail applied for restraint. Note: Cocktail 6513 was previously tested before project failure on one Subject Zero, application has resulted in biotic suppression, no incidence as of yet." As the man knelt to look at the man, the man was fitted with clothing besides his own run down rags during his sedation, the man had to be early twenties, blue eyed, but with blackened hair, a strange display of genetics, the doctor thought. From the man's essentials, a pouch was found, with an embroidered name of Nihlus Amell on the flap, and also some warning about spontaneous combustion, but the doctor waived it off as nonsense.

"Subject appears physically able, able to display martial abilities even under restraint," he began to say, "If this, 'Nihlus' is what he seems to be; he may be a recorded Alliance biotic if not military. However, initial searches have turned up negative; a blood test may prove a viable option."

Finnegan got back up, with Nihlus making no movements whatsoever, he didn't need to provoke them, and they needed to provoke him. Finnegan touched his omni-tool again, creating a scan function, the scan's lights going over Nihlus's body. As this was happening, Nihlus cowered at the sudden display of light; to him it was like magic, just more refined to him. Within the last moments of the scan, Nihlus got up from his position, holding a hand in front of his eyes, to block the scanning light. The scan to Finnegan was actually just a simple bio-statistics scan, the scan quickly finishing and a light tab showed on the omni-tool, with Finnegan continuing to say;

"Note: Subject shows disturbed reactions to artificial light, Subject may either be victim to cryogenic freezing or severe distraught caused by injuries sustained during his arrest. Subject Icarus may be in no position to tell of his entry into Sector 15," the doctor sighs turning away, still speaking to his Omni-tool. "Reminder: Operative Selma is to bring me the reports C-Sec filed, inform Mess Hall staff to provide the Subject required sustenance, perhaps some level of bribery is required in order to get answers, and finally establish a comm link to Operative Lawson, I have something to discu-"

"What in the name of Andraste's tits is an Icarus?"

Finnegan turned around, only to see the man gone from his spot in the corner. Finnegan was stunned by the amount of endurance this man had, even under sedation he had incredible control over his primary locomotive functions. Finnegan soon turned his head looking in the room, finding the man relaxing on the bed that was supplied in the cell, about the only thing they could supply without the man possessing the ability to escape.

"Excuse me?" the doctor inquired.

"You must not be very bright," the Warden said, a smile coming to his face, the first since his arrival in this new place, "I said, 'What in the name of Andraste's tits is an Icarus?"

Finnegan smiled, obviously amused, "I'm surprised you don't know he would be the first human, in mythology of course, to ever fly."

"I'm sure if this 'Icarus' was able to fly I would of heard about it, it would be very useful to fly," Nihlus said. He soon got up from his relaxed position, resting against the wall and the bed instead of the bed solely. "Besides, I'm sure the Templars would benefit from them more, your precious Chantry always has its fingers in everyone's business, why not from the air as well."

"Templar?" the doctor asked, "You think I'm a Templar? I'm afraid I'm no knight, sir."

"Then a mage? I presume such magic I have not seen."

The doctor laughed, "I would say not, and if you're talking about my Omni-tool, I'm sad to say you're mistaken."

Nihlus glared at the doctor, continuing to make sense of the man in front of him, "If not a neither mage nor Templar, may I inquire the symbol on that rag you call a robe?"

The doctor stared at his lab-coat, a coat made specifically for Cerberus operatives, and the symbol of Cerberus imprinted on the pocket of the coat itself. The doctor looked back at Nihlus, quickly pushing aside the question;

"You sound like an educated man, if you should know of Cerberus; we represent humanity's interests, its future, and its place in the grand scheme of its advancement."

"Hah, that's a laugh, humanity has done nothing but scheme and steal its way to power for thousands of years, if what you say is true, your…Cerberus, is nothing but another pawn of the Templars."

Finnegan glared right back at the man, clearly angered by his assumptions. With a wave of his hand, two large men in full armor, came into the room, standing at ready by the doctor. The mage rose from the bed, measuring up the armored men mumbling and then chuckling. Finnegan, annoyed with the laugh, asked the Warden;

"What is so funny?"

"Your complete and utter foolish gesture that you have any reason to hold me Templar, I am a Warden," Nihlus said as he walked past the armed men, seeing a transparent orange cube on a table. Nihlus attempted to grab the object, its sides flowing with runes and sigils constantly shifting in cyclic movements. To Nihlus, it was like touching light itself, but not. It was light-weighted, and it easily manipulated the runes easily moving under his fingers. But the problem to Nihlus was not the object itself, but his curiosity was beginning to over-boil.

"_Where in Tevinter have I seen these symbols…why do I feel like that was supposed to dissipate? Huh."_

Nihlus began to touch several of symbols, starting to shift them along the cube's surface on the circular tracks, moving some to another side and some completely vanishing. It was like a wave of information, he didn't actually know what the symbols exactly but he knew where to put it them and how. Finnegan and the guards, who were probably bored out of their minds before entering the room, looked on as the man just kept turning and touching the cube. Until the movements stopped, and a sound of a bang was heard, and the cube turned green.

"Holy Maker…how…how can light make a sound," the young Warden said.

Finnegan was impressed, amused by the test that was laid out before. For experimental purposes, Cerberus had found an entry console into Sector 15, but was only able to copy the object. This console was like the cube in Nihlus's hands, but only keepers were seen being able to use the console. Any other species that had tried to interact with the console had always resulted in failure, and usually a quick blackout in the surrounding area of the war. But for a human found out of the blue, a human that was in the very same sector of Keeper tunnels, and a blackout as well; this man had to be in the tunnels, he had to know something.

"It was but a test…and you passed," Finnegan spoke up.

"A test?" the Warden asked, "What test involves moving light?"

The doctor looked only confused, and was about to ask what the man meant, but Nihlus continued to rant.

"What kind of test is this!? What magic is this!" he pointed to the now green lit rune on the one side of the cube, Answer me!" the mage shouted, a flicker of energy flowing over his body, a flicker unnoticeable by the guards and the doctor.

"Calm down, everything will be answered in time," the doctor calmly said. Raising a finger, he pointed towards the cube, "You do realize what you just did and what you mean by magic? It's simply an interactive hologram."

"Holo…gram…" the Warden never heard of the word before, it was hard trying to sound it out. "You delay your answers with question and words that have no meaning! Bah! You might as well be a Seeker, Templar. You seek answers to questions which don't exist!" Nihlus shouted, frantically pacing around the room, his glare never leaving the doctor like a predator watching his kill.

"We need answers from what you know. You have the knowledge that can tell us what hides in those tunnels…do you not know what you have uncovered? Centuries of missed opportunities, and humanity has done what the other species have. And Cerberus needs to know how," the doctor said, his Omni-tool still recording the conversation. This question something more of preliminary, to see if the man would give them their undivided chance to show what he knew willingly. But at this moment, the subject was leaning more to resisting then cooperation.

"I know not of what you speak of, Templar, I have little memory of those tunnels." Nihlus was becoming impatient, the man was truly irritating. This man wanted him to remember things that he couldn't remember at will. Nihlus was just lucky he could remember his own name; let alone how to use his own magic. His memory was always rather selective, but when he needed to memorize something, his memory was like a spirit, everlasting and infinite. "I am a Warden, and I will be released. You have no right to hold me." Nihlus said, heading towards the frame in the wall, but the door had again shut in front of him, "What demon's work is this?"

"You speak of demons sir? Tell me. How is it that such an intelligent man can believe and speak of things like magic and demons…and these Wardens? When he is surely worth such more than what he thinks." Finnegan said, tapping several functions on his Omni-tool. "Note: Subject Icarus appears to be suffering from a form of dissociative disorder; possibly hallucinating…we may have to resort to more…coercive."

Nihlus stood staring at the frame of the former doorway. Finnegan motioned a guard to secure and restrain Nihlus, but not to do any damage to the subject; the good doctor needed more answers to Icarus's ranting. As one of the guards took a step towards the man, Nihlus looked at his hand, a ball of energy forming in it. None of the three other men in the room had noticed it. They were more focused on the man himself. In the Circle, an assortment of Templars and a commander and a closed door meant one was suspect of either being a malificar, or an abomination, he would fall victim like those sheep. One of the armored guards put a hand on his shoulder;

"_Provocation…you just made a big mistake."_

With a motion, the mage turned towards the guard, taking the man by the wrist, easily twisting and breaking the man's wrist. Despite the man's stature and his armor, his confidence led to his own foolishness. The man tried to respond with a blow to Nihlus's head, Nihlus was able to block the attack, the Arcane Warrior's phylactery was truly paying off, and took a knee to the man's suit. The man fell to his knees, Nihlus wasn't able to see if pain-anguished face under his helmet, but his own pain was noticeable; his own knee probably shattered by the armor. But still the mage took his hand, a swirl of energy wrapping around his hand, and the swirl met the man's helmet. With a strike of telekinetic energy, a snap was heard; the sound was large enough to fill the room for everyone to hear. The man's body flew across the room, hitting the wall and then the bed, resting on the floor. The other guard raised a weapon, but the mage took his hands and directed the energy building inside him. To the shock of the doctor and the guard, it wasn't any biotic ability the ever saw before, in fact, it didn't look like it was possible.

Fire. Literal fire shot from the man's hand, engulfing the guard's body. The fire could easily avoid the guard's kinetic barriers, and the man's armor was quickly being eaten away by the ravenous flames. Nihlus stood there looking at his own handy work, while Finnegan was quickly alerting the base, but despite his cold but still surprised look on his face, in his mind he was completely stunned…to him it meant a lot more than just Sector 15. This man had no tech on his person, not even an Omni-tool or an identity program, how could he summon up fire? Let alone resist the effects of the cocktail. However, Finnegan, in the corner of his eye, could see that Nihlus was approaching him…quite rapidly.

Nihlus dropped the light cube, slightly limping from the broken knee. Finnegan had tried to inject another dose of the cocktail through his Omni-tool to Nihlus, but nothing happened.

"_Shit, great time for a malfunction,"_ Finnegan thought. But Nihlus continued, and the Omni-tool fizzled out. Nihlus grabbed Finnegan by the throat, clutching hard enough to lift him slightly, pushing him against the wall. Nihlus summoned up another wisp of flames in his hand stretching out behind his back, his hand facing the doctor's face. Finnegan could actually feel the flames' heat but still, there was no tech, and the man's hand wasn't burned at all, this man…was completely unfazed by his own abilities. Nihlus looked at the doctor, trying to lift him up higher than his knees would allow him to, speaking calmly, but with a commanding tone;

"I am Nihlus Amell of the Grey Wardens, and you cannot fathom what I know and what I've seen. And you never will." The mage positioned him again, preparing to strike the doctor with his flame engulfed hand. But then, Nihlus's eyes went wide, the doctor could hear a popping sound…the sound of an injection dart. Behind Nihlus, stood several guards, one holding a dart-gun, its cartridge empty of the dart. Nihlus fell limp, the fire dissipating from his hands. Finnegan grabbed his own throat, gasping for air. One of the guards walked up, moving over the limp body and approaching the good doctor. Nudging him on the soldier, he said;

"Doctor? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Finnegan said, "Secure him, and transfer him to D-Wing. This requires more influential methods." The doctor gasped again, still clinging onto air. His Omni-tool finally re-sparked, and he continued to speak; "Note: Subject Icarus is a fully functional biotic, abnormalities present. Report findings to Illusive Man…Note: Subject Icarus is resistant to Cocktail 6513. Increasing dosage will cause permanent brain damage…not a reliable source of suppression. Interview Zero-One concluded."

* * *

_**2185: Citadel Docking Control, Citadel Space.**_

A shift in space appeared, the relay's 'gates' slowing down as a ship exited its run through its FTL travel. The ship closed the distance between the relay and the Citadel with great speed, traveling through the nebula's gasses like a bird in the air. At the docks, a lone docking administrator was managing the traffic of this sector. Unlike most nights it was some random celebration going on in the other Wards…which apparently ever other dock worker in Zakera ward was invited to. But then, a signal appeared on the administrator's LADAR, and she activated her comm link.

"Unknown Ship, this is Citadel Docking Control, Zakera Ward. Please state your business."

A voice spoke, quickly getting to the point, "This is Commander Shepard of the Normandy. Requesting permission to dock."

The worker thought to herself real quickly, she heard that the commander was actually alive but she didn't think she would actually find out from the Commander herself. "…Docking request approved. Welcome back to the Citadel, Commander."

"Great to be back."

* * *

**(A/N: Here's the next chapter guys! Thank you for the follows and the favorites and thanks for the hint Gavoon...I do like the word 'then.' But there's your hint of Shepard, hopefully I'll bring her back more for the next chapter.)**

**Author's Codex**

**Sector 15 is a universal identification of special zones of the Citadel Wards. These zones consist of Keeper tunnels completely inaccessible to the Citadel occupants. While the name 'Sector 15' isn't specific to the commons of the Wards, its universal meaning spreads to over eighteen 'Sector 15's' across all five wards, including the Presidium. Every entrance to these zones has been marked by Citadel Security, each entrance is easily identifiable by a Keeper-use only console. Since the discovery of the Citadel, 400 blackouts in the areas surrounding the Sectors have occurred. Everyone has been random and all of the blackouts extend after either decades or even centuries. After Sovereign's attack and the substantial boost in Citadel safety, C-Sec have aggressively been keeping track of all entrances and exits to and from the Sectors. The Council has also ruled all attempts to gain access to these "essential areas of the continuing function of the Citadel," will be charged with an assortment crimes. The ruling was first made shortly after they decided to ban all interaction and researching of the Keepers, long before the Humans even heard of the Turians.**


	4. Closer To The Edge: Part 1

**Disclaimer: All Characters, lore, and locations of Mass Effect and BioWare belong to BioWare. The story is of my own thought.**

**Inspired by totallybursar's Stars Fade. Please for the love of all that is beautiful, read this story, Stars Fade is a work of art. The writing is superb!**

**Chapter Title: Courtesy of 30 Seconds to Mars for their awesome inspiration.**

* * *

"_**Closer To The Edge: Part 1"**_

_**2184CE: Six months after Subject Icarus incident**_

_Connecting to secure Cerberus OEC network...Connection established._

The imaged shimmer as the Illusive Man looked on towards the QEC platform. Within a few moments, the image finally settled, a man in lab coat handing off a data-pad to a figure in the back ground. The Illusive Man took a puff of his cigarette, tipping the ash into the tray as he began to speak;

"Dr. Finnegan, I hope that you have progress to report."

The Doctor looked disheveled, rubbing the back of his neck with the palm of his hand, "I wouldn't call what I have to deal with progress, sir…"

"Hmm, I would was hoping to hear something a little more informative, Doctor, especially with the incident your facility suffered those months ago." The Illusive stared at the good Doctor, with the Doctor staring right back into those artificial eyes that the Illusive Man mysteriously obtained. The Doctor was disturbed by the fact that the Illusive Man had known about the incident…two guards dead and an assault on the Doctor was definitely easier to cover up then missing C-Sec reports about a certain patient they had received.

"Sir, the reason I don't have anything to report because there is nothing to report…my initial findings were…misguided. The man we have taken is nothing but mentally disturbed…I've seen this many times in my previous work. The man is suffering from a sort of delusion and possibly is under the stress of some degenerative disease," the doctor said.

"Degenerative disease? Do you have any findings on that?" the Illusive man inquired.

"No sir…we have focused our 'resources' into Subject Icarus's interrogation…He is a resilient example of humanity… even under the influence of some of the strongest sedatives, he remains alert and aware. Biotic suppression…is increasingly becoming erratic and random. The extent to his abilities is rare, if not surprising."

"So he is genetically modified?" The Illusive Man asked again.

"Not to my knowledge…if he is part of an alliance program…I don't suppose you know of anything that refers to a group called the Wardens, sir?" the doctor stared at the Illusive Man, trying to scan his reaction on his boss's face.

"No I do not good Doctor, but I am unimpressed by this attempt to interest my curiosity. Months ago you promised me answers that could improve humanities knowledge of the galaxy, of the Reapers. Your failures are not impressive; all you have done is drug a prime example of humanity to a reduced brain-damaged man. Yes, good doctor, I have records to everything that happens in all of Cerberus's cells. Your actions are all documented."

"I can apparently see that, sir," the Doctor said between his teeth.

"But I'll be cooperative and throw you the proverbial bone. I'm only giving you one more shot Doctor, if the subject is unreliable for information, as you subtlety put it. I suggest you transfer the subject to Project Phoenix. But for now, you have a few more months to work with him."

The doctor moved back, stunned from Illusive Man's decision. . . "Sir, that is highly premature…we have not even gotten a chance to get an answer for his home planet!"

"You had six months Doctor to those kinds of answers; colonies are disappearing, sooner or later. Shepard is going to be awake soon and we need answers. And if you can't find me any to these blackouts or this man's relation to those keeper tunnels…I'm afraid Project Phoenix will be able to tell me why he can manipulate something so primal as fire," the Illusive Man said, the Doctor stilled stunned by the entire conversation, a conversation that was ridiculing him in front of his operatives in the room. No doctor should have to hear such orders as vagrant as "cleaning up shop." "Goodbye, Doctor Finnegan."

_Connection terminated…._

Finnegan looked down at the metallic floor, thinking about his apparent humiliation received by the Illusive Man. But despite this, his anger festered. He looked up, staring at the men and women in lab-coats around him. He looked around as the hologram display was moving into QEC platform.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, I may have no future, but you young-ings still need to find a job after this is all over," he said softly, lifting his head to face the small crowd around him, "Well? Back to work! Now!" The crowd started scurrying about, the lights and images popping back and forth between the screens of the terminals. Finnegan stepped off the platform, walking towards a large window, angled away from him. He leaned on the rail before the window, his Omni-tool shining around his arm, a voice coming from holographic wonder.

"Sir…we're ready to begin the procedure."

"Affirmative, Dr. Eisley…Begin the ECT procedure," Finnegan announced.

Finnegan looked down into the room below from the observation room. The observation was designed to give the head of the project full view of any procedures occurring at once. All procedures were recorded and all information that was displayed for the operatives in the rooms below, were being translated and recorded into the Project's databases, databases that would be transmitted directly into the Cerberus network per the Illusive Man's design. The observation room was a room designed to peer into operating rooms. All the rooms were separating and designed to follow a hexagonal path of the observation room's layout. The observation room had a small path outlining the inner rows of terminals, where a railing was place to prevent leaning and falling onto the glass. Each window frame and walls of the rooms were outlined with kinetic barrier generators, to prevent escape of the patients.

Finnegan, as head of the Project and the sight on the Citadel, was however not the architect who designed the facility; that honest claim was the project's last head of operations. Finnegan stared at Dr. Eisley, who stared right back up into the observation room, with two Omni-tool ECT programs around her hands, both hovering over the head of a patient strapped intensely to the procedure table. Finnegan nodded, and Eisley nodded right back, quickly turning her attention to the patient at hand, sighing;

"Operation: 6.7, Dr. Eisley of Neurology-Wing head of procedure, Subject Icarus, Patient is due for Electric Compulsive Therapy…Voltage has been unspecified by project head. . . Patient is currently sedated. We estimate thirty minutes until subject is lucid enough to become hostile. Beginning Procedure…"

The Omni-tools made contact with Nihlus's head; his eyes shooting wide open as the electric current flows through his head, the energy of his "biotics" arcing out into the room, several pulses of energy pushing assistants to fall backwards. The doctors and assistants, still standing of course, immediately backed off, with one of the assistants cursing out;

"Shit, shut it down, shut it down!" Eisley immediately turned the voltage off, disconnected her Omni-tools from Nihlus's lobe. She immediately turned off the holographs, and stared towards Dr. Finnegan's direction in the observation room, shouting out;

"What the fuck was that, Finnegan! I'm trying not to get killed here by some human biotic freak of nature! He was supposed to be completely shut downed!"

"It appears our calculations were wrong Dr. Eisley…" the good doctor said through his Omni-tool's microphone, "It seems interrogation will be moved up. Close up shop, transfer him back to his room…and please do it calmly without killing our guest."

"….Yes Dr. Finnegan."

* * *

_**2185CE: Normandy SR-2, Citadel Docks**_

As the Normandy's airlock commenced its decontamination process, Shepard was leaning against the wall, facing her two teammates who were anxiously waiting for the whole process to be over. Both Garrus, a turian with a renegade attitude, and Kasumi, the enigmatic master thief, who has had every chance to take Shepard's offer in helping her with a certain "heist;" both of these two were both at the top of their game, their profession, and their lives. To Shepard, they were her "pet project," her most trusted of comrades, but to the point, could they trust her? She listened to Garrus's story of his team's demise, and the traitor, Sidonis. If Shepard ever had a traitor on her own team…it would not end well for anyone. But to her, deep inside herself, she just couldn't stop feeling disappointed in herself. She looked on to the two specialists, thinking to her;

"_How could they trust me? When I can't be trusted by the whole galaxy…This blasted station…I saved it two years ago…And still now the Council can't even give me the benefit of the doubt about the Reapers. And Liara…two years and I couldn't even get close. Not even close enough to hold her hand…her…"_

"Shepard?" Shepard woke from her slight distraction, the decontamination process had ended, and all that remained was the constant buzzing. EDI then spoke up; "Shepard, it would be best if you could exit the airlock, it would be a shame if Specialists Vakarian and Goto report to C-Sec without your presence."

"Duly noted, EDI." Shepard shifted her now-repaired recon hood in her hands, then pulling it over her head, shuffling her hair under the hood to attain some form of comfort. The hood soon connected with the rest of her body armor, her Heads-Up-Display, immediately powering up into the goggles of her hoods. She took her pistol off her side mag-holster, letting it unfold in her hands as she cocked the Phalanx's slide into place, checking it another time to make sure it had a Thermal clip. Ever since Torfan, for Shepard, it had become an obsession to be always prepared, even if she was going to somewhere as "safe" as the Citadel. Satisfied, she stepped out of the airlock, the Normandy's door shutting behind her. Her two squad-mates were awaiting her by the Skycar terminal, which seemed to be arguing with each other as well.

"I told you Vakarian, ladies always get first pick," Kasumi said, nudging her hand into Garrus's armor plate. His mandible's twitched, looking at the thief with a cold but over-confident state;

"I'm sorry, what was that? I can't hear you over how fast I'm picking the damn taxi."

"Really guys? I expect these things from children." Shepard yelped up, her voice echoing through her hood's, synthesized material, "Get a damn taxi and let's get this show on the road. Kasumi gets the pick."

"Yes!" the thief celebrated, muttering underneath her breath.

"Pfft, spoilsport," the turian said towards the commander and then looking back at Kasumi, "You win this round, Goto." Kasumi simply pushed Garrus out of the way and rapidly picked out a generic skycar, and the automated VI soon delivered the vehicle to the garage, stopping right in front of Shepard and company. The squad soon got into the car, and Shepard punched in their destination, the skycar immediately taking off to the C-Sec office in Zakera Ward.

As the skycar was passing the endless amount of traffic and the buildings of the Citadel ward, Garrus decided to break the silence;

"So are we actually going to have a reason to go to C-Sec or are we going to end up just walking around the Citadel for no reason looking at every shop in the wards?"

Shepard covered head just looked at Garrus; Garrus knew that even behind that covered face of hers, she still had the same scowl of hers, the same scowl that just yelled "I'll beat you with a chair leg and watch you bleed from the proverbial ear." Kasumi, intrigued lean over the front seats, asking;

"Yeah, come on Shep, might as well let us know, you know I'll find out eventually."

"Fine," Shepard sighed, summoning up her Omni-tool and relaying the Cerberus package to their tools. As they downloaded the data package, Shepard resumed saying, "Sorry for the lack of a brief, had some other things on my mind. The Illusive Man didn't give us much info, but one of their facilities went dark here on the Citadel, wants us to investigate."

"I'm sure you did Shepard…Wait. Cerberus had operatives and facilities on the Citadel? Surprised nothing like that ever showed up," Garrus said, his mandibles flinching as he looked through the package. Kasumi leaned back into her seat, scrolling through data;

"Not surprising really. What I've heard of Cerberus, it is things like what happened to Admiral Kahoku that makes them almost as mysterious as me. What's more interesting is this mysterious man they have held up."

"Unknown," Shepard said through her hood. "The Illusive Man only referred him as Subject Icarus. But he did give us some leads. Bailey might have some knowledge on him. Apparently, he arrested the man a year back, sent him to some psyche ward."

"Sarawak's Mental Sanatorium?" Garrus asked.

"Yeah. You've heard of it Garrus?" Shepard asked, still facing the front of the skycar, looking forward into traffic.

"Few of my arrests went sent there. Never actually set foot in the place. Always human arrests too…I didn't quite put two and two together. But if Bailey is our contact…then it might be safe to say our resident captain is a bit dirty," he said, his voice flanging up in a small display of disgust.

"If he keeps the peace, I don't care how he does it. He's not hurting innocents. Cerberus had operatives in the facility, Bailey could have possibly not have known. Our mission is to get to Bailey, find the sanatorium, and find the facility."

"There's more than one?" Kasumi inquired.

"The Illusive Man failed to mention the actual location. Apparently only getting the facility back online is the primary goal. No recovery," Shepard shrugged.

"So we're going to let Cerberus have their hands on a bunch of insane people and do it freely? And what? Let them more Jacks?" Garrus said, his own voice getting deeper and staring at Shepard, pointing his Talon at him. Shepard's head turned downwards, her goggles focused on the boots on her feet. She raised her head, saying;

"That's our mission Garrus. We get it done and we do it right. Circumstances can change anything Garrus." Shepard wasn't as bland as she was usually during a mission. Her own experiences always shaped her works as a soldier, as a SPECTRE. But working with Cerberus, or was it for; was getting more and more into the black and white. For Shepard, she was going to get this into the grey as much as possible. "Garrus trust me. Cerberus will get their own one day. But today, we just get that facility back up. If possible, we can find help for these people. I always have a plan." Under her mask, she grinned and she knew Garrus could still even see it under her hood.

"Yes, yes you do." Garrus looked back to the front of the car, his eyes shifting left and right across the data streaming on his Omni-tool. Garrus always knew what he knew was right. Cerberus may have wanted to save human colonies from the Collectors, but they always have had another agenda in mind. This business, with a mental clinic no less, bothered him. He knew that the sanatorium was now just being used as a front, a multi-racial sanatorium no less. How many victims did Cerberus have in their hands? But then Garrus would always come back to the fact that not all mental patients were innocent. The three sat silent as the car final shifted towards a large clearing. The transport landed smoothly, its doors opening and shifting. The three got out one by one, each lining up next to the other. Shepard proceeded to the C-Sec entrance, the customs agent at the front desk trying to get her attention. The Commander simply waved it off, the doors opening as she grew closer to them, with Garrus and Kasumi following close behind.

"Sorry for the inconvenience ma'am," the turian C-Sec agent said blatantly.

"You're just doing your job," Shepard sighed. The Citadel's new security obviously wasn't good enough. If the little bit of information the Illusive Man sent to her in the first place was correct, this "Subject Icarus" might as well of dropped from the Conduit. Of course that wasn't possible; it was deactivated after the Battle of the Citadel and even shielded. Shepard and her squad passed the door, with Shepard immediately locking on to Bailey's desk. But unusually he was up from his desk, barking orders at his men. Something was up it seemed. Every officer was going past her squad and out the door, possibly to get into a police skycar. But the fact that all of them were armored and getting assault rifles, it was an unusual sight to see. Bailey, taking a second from his slave driving, noticed Shepard at his desk and started to approach her and her team, saying;

"Shepard, welcome back."

"Captain Bailey, glad to be back," she replied.

"What? The Terminus Systems aren't exciting enough for humanity's first SPECTRE?" Celest crossed her arms, clearly not in the mood for jokes by a semi-respectable captain.

"Sorry, Captain. We need information." Bailey shrugged, and leaned on the wall next to his desk, continuing;

"Sure, but be quick about it, I got C-Sec moving out."

"What for?" Garrus asked.

"Damnedest thing," Bailey said, waving his hand off in the air. "A Bloodpack Krogan somehow got on the Citadel unnoticed, brought a whole damned gang with him, and shot up a mental sanatorium. My life is being reduced to paper work and piss breaks, more and more every second I can't find the huge bastard."

"Sounds like a…big problem," Kasumi remarked, giggling under her breath. Shepard didn't move, only replying; "Bailey, I know you have a lot on your plate, but did you happen to send a man, about a year ago to this Sanatorium?" Shepard opened the Icarus package, pulling out a photo that was taken by the Sanatorium after the man's admission, and then showed it to Bailey. Bailey squinted at the picture, but immediately realized who it was.

"Holy…shit. That's the guys that killed Sergeant Kalo…that bastard disappeared a year ago. Haven't seen him since."

"Well, I'm looking for him. And this Krogan you're talking about, and he's gunning for the group this man is being held by. I need any information you have on this guy," Celest uncrossed her arms, stretching out her shoulders from the wear of the armor she had on. Bailey's Omni-tool rang out; he immediately held his hand to his ear, seeming to take a call.

"Yea…ok…secure the area. I'll be right there. Shit, Shepard, it's been a year; I was just pissed when the guy couldn't be brought to trial for a cop's death. Look, we found your Krogan, he's on the inner part of the ward; the sanatorium is on the outermost edge of the arm so he's on a mission," Bailey paused for a moment, taking a pistol out of his desk drawer and holstering it to his side, "Look Shepard, my men aren't going to want to go against Bloodpack and an angry Krogan., I could use your help. We might even find your man."

Shepard rubbed her eye through her goggles; her squad mates were too quiet. Of course she had to do all the talking when it came to C-Sec, "Fine Bailey, I'll do this because I'm a SPECTRE. But if I don't find what I'm looking for. You owe me. Big time."

"Deal!" Bailey exclaimed, "Sergeant! Grab a skycar for me and the Commander's team. Everyone! Mount up! We got a full-on assault on Phi-Tech Pharmaceuticals!"

Bailey and a Sergeant passed Celest and her team, Shepard immediately trying to follow them to the outer transport garage. But then Garrus poked one of his talons on her shoulder pads;

"Shepard? Wasn't Phi-Tech Pharmaceuticals one of the companies the Illusive Man had sent in the data package?"

"So?" Shepard asked, all while turning her head around, facing the turian renegade.

"So? Why list a company head as a contact…when the company head is named Eidyia Wagner? The turian at this point was whispering, his mandibles barely moving as he spoke, as if a certain someone just had to be listening on their conversation. For all they knew, all their armor and weapons were probably bugged up to their thermal clips.

"Shit. . . Let's move! We have job to do! I'll break the Illusive Man in two later!" Shepard started to storm pass the door leading to the security check, Garrus and Kasumi quickly following.

"Well," Kasumi started to say, "She's pissed, Garrus."

"You have no idea."

* * *

**(A/N: So here are the next chapter fellows and fellowettes. For the Author's Codex this chapter, it's going to be incredibly chopped up. Recently I have been thinking about the future of the story, (of course I have an outline) and one thing that has been bugging me is the difficultly of the crossing over the two stories, but not only that, but their mechanics. So like I said, I have been planning the story for some time, only writing it is a bigger hardship then anything, and this story is AU of course. So I'll be taking liberty of going into some deep theoretical shit right here during the course of this story. So when I started planning I took it up with one of fellow college-going friends, who call himself a meta-physicist for some reason. Now, both of us not knowing the true art of meta-physics to heart, and since we're still in our education, we did a lot of thinking. Now, I know a fair amount of both Dragon Age and Mass Effect lore, but I have a huge bunch of theories. Now my friend and I have compiled some hopefully reasonable things for the Codex. We won't be going too much this time, but we will be throwing something out that seems to be scrutinized in this certain field of fanfiction; comparing magic, with biotics. Oh boy. Be aware, the person introduced is an OC and he will be relevant in the coming story. Part 2 is on the way!)**

**Author's Codex**

**Dr. Isaac Hermann Ph.D.**

**Professor of the University of Harvard, Cambridge, MA, UNAS, Earth**

**2170 CE-2176CE**

_**A Metaphysical Interpretation of the Biotic Abilities of Homo-Sapiens.**_

_**Article #1**_

**Biotics, the universal symbol of a rare genetic mutation caused by the direct contact with refined Element Zero or along with a secondary contact. For Humans, it is a rarity that we find such amazing abilities, but that our home cultures have put such a stigma on the research and the existence of such prime examples of human evolution. Human biotics are not as refined as other Council Species, like the asari, who are all genetically given the ability at birth. It should be known that all cultures of the Citadel, including those that are no longer of the Citadel, have believed in superstitious beliefs hundreds if not thousands of years before they took their first flight into space. However, over the evidence that I have gathered from different species, it can be concluded that the age of Science has replaced their superstitious beliefs, if not entirely. But for humans, so new to the galactic community, still hold strong in our beliefs. This can be accounted for humanity's genetic diversity, our different cultures, our languages, and our different ways of thought. **

**But the point of this article is to explore, the past of human biotics, in its most primeval form; magic. Now before you cast aside the heresy, let me remind that Galileo was discredited by the Roman Catholic Church for his works in Astronomy. The CERN collider was discredited because it searched for the "god" particle. If Mass Effect technology was theorized in the 20****th**** or 21****st**** century, they would have been thrown out of the auditorium of scientists around the world until the discovery in 2148. But what I realized is that biotics are just a scientific form of the so called medieval sense of power. Today human biotics are genetically born with poor abilities, due to the small mental usage of the human mind, and are implanted in order to support their mental with stronger abilities. The idea of magic and biotics is but connected to the human mind. **

**The human mind is capable of many things; emotion, thought, subconscious reasoning and even our very personalities. It is my theory that the reason why we have myths, stories and legends about magical beings, is that at one point they existed, but no longer due to the survival of the fittest. Since biotic abilities only amount to telekinetic properties due to dark energy manipulation, the very effect that powers our Faster-than-Light technology. Human biotics experience some mental strain due to their own abilities, although that is easily reparable due to modern bio-amps. Asari do not suffer the same mental strain because their own anatomy allows them connect with the minds of organic species. The volus and turians do not experience it because of their rarity, and their own brain structure. Humans are an aspiring biotic race because of their strong minds, but because their anatomy limits their mental health, we do not see the extreme forms of biotic abilities. If we look at the history of all the species, we all have always believed in a form of an afterlife. **

**If a human biotic is to be as strong as an asari commando biotically, that human must have some sort of ethereal reinforcement, a plane of existence that shapes out to all organic life. An over-stretching arc of energy that stretches from world to world and balances out the world with this metaphysical plane of existence. The existence of dark energy proposes a higher form of existence. Magic, if possible, was a tool to the wisest, the strongest, and the most courageous. If so, these great mythic minds of human history were of the strongest and the earliest forms of biotic potential. While some forms of so called magic may seem impossible to attempt physical, a being with the ability to manipulate dark energy fields to manipulate the very atoms of existence, could perform massive acts of incredible magnitude. If so, these biotics would only live for so long, due to their mental strain would only be rebuffed by a meta-physical plane. Also, if a being was powerful but mentally poisoned, the factor of the survival of the fittest would eliminate these historical figures. **

**The myths of yesterday could improve our understanding of standing science today. We will not understand the full extent of our own abilities and our minds, if we do not attempt to understand the very planes of existences that form and fabricate the very mysterious existence of the universe. **_**One man's science is another man's magic; One man's magic is another man's science.**_


	5. Closer to the Edge: Part 2

**Disclaimer: All Characters, lore, and locations of Mass Effect and BioWare belong to BioWare. The story is of my own thought.**

**Inspired by totallybursar's Stars Fade. Please for the love of all that is beautiful, read this story, Stars Fade is a work of art. The writing is superb!**

**Chapter Title: Courtesy of 30 Seconds to Mars for their awesome inspiration.**

* * *

"_**Closer To The Edge: Part 2"**_

_**2185CE: Sight Eidyia; Phi-Tech Pharmaceuticals Research and Development Zakera Ward Office.**_

There were sixty-eight. Sixty-eight door that he passed before we went to that Maker-forsaken room. Nihlus was led by several men, several armed men. Even in a facility such as this, while dealing with subjects like Nihlus, it was a given that all the Cerberus operatives and researchers were to be armed. Even in medical labs. Eisley was just a doctor. Unlike Finnegan, she had no dreams of getting in bed with the bosses pocket. She was just here for research. And this subject was great for research. A man with biotic abilities such as him could give Cerberus and humanity such insight into their current level. Even with more advanced implants being designed within the last two years, human biotics were still majorly behind when compared to the asari, the turians, hell, even the batarians.

Nihlus was being led to the procedure room, with Eisley pushing Nihlus along in his wheelchair, along with five armed guards and an assistant. Eisley's decision to take the subject in for a different sort of interrogation today was, let's say, unusual. Usually the subject would be completely knocked out, drugged and inflicted with biotic suppressions, but the effects were increasingly becoming short term. It was like the subjects body was fighting off the suppression like an infection. Blood tests confirmed that the subject was suffering from a degenerative disease, nothing mental, but physical. The subject was altered in some way, but his biotic systems were natural, no alteration of his genetics or anatomy was recorded or even found during his procedures. His procedures included the bi-weekly ECT sessions, weekly interrogations, and medical examinations. The purpose of the unconscious ECT sessions was designed to lessen the subject's mental strain, and to turn the subject more complacent to questions. But it wasn't helping any longer. The subject was becoming numb to their interrogations; all questions were answered with incoherent and useless answers. Dr. Finnegan, with his time running up with the Illusive Man, decided just to question the man about himself. Anything about the Citadel was useless, the man wasn't going to be a great help in the wrong run. Eisley could see that Finnegan was feeling the pressure; the Illusive Man's foot was getting heavier on his throat, heavy enough for Finnegan to snap.

Nihlus wasn't drugged. He was just exhausted. The therapy and the interrogations were driving on him. He could barely walk now, his mana was constantly drained by the liquids and solvents the men and women put in his body. When asked to display "biotics" by the men, Nihlus just assumed they were talking about his magic. And so he did during these times. But it was never anything extraordinary; his mana was gone to him most of the time. He either needed time to recover, or his lyrium and he had no access to either. Any display was just a simple bending of a spoon or small, marble sized energy wisp. But today was different, he could feel it.

Usually when the men and the woman, Eisley, she called herself during their first introduction, came to awaken Nihlus. It was with armed guards and tube with a point on it. To think a society would resort to such barbaric practice, torture by acupuncture. But Nihlus would always fall back asleep after they did this routine, waking back up when the tray of cold food was laying on the floor of the cell. But like he thought, today was different, he was awake and being pushed around in some wheeled cart-like contraption. Nihlus had always fought, against Templars, Darkspawn, and even his fellow mages. But fighting and resisting this group was becoming useless, he was tired, he thought that maybe he could finally get some rest today. Maybe he would answer their questions. His ability to distract and twist his interrogator's words around onto them was wearing thin, and it was becoming increasingly useless to him. His captors would not rest, unlike the Templars who at most times would just give up after the thousandth no. But these people were intrigued with him. Today, to feed his own ego, he might answer them. But, they clearly did not know who he was or what he could do. They had no idea what they were dealing with, but they knew how to be prepared. But today he counted the doors, the second time in a year that he was able to. The last time he did so, that day ended with a man having a tool sticking into his shoulder blade. He thought he could escape at that moment but alas, the weakness of his body subdued him. But today was different, he could sense it. Sixty-eight doors they passed, and then moved into a moving room.

Another hallway they entered as they left the moving room. Whatever deep road he thought he was in was drastically different than any he thought he was in before. The walls were shiny with metal plating, but they weren't like the roads during his first minutes here. These halls were more akin to a building, stacked upon each other. That judgment was made as soon as he felt how the moving room moved up and down during every one of his travels. The guards in front turned right and approached a much larger door, with another transparent green rune on the center of it. One of the guards approached it, pressing one of his fingers on the ghost-like rune. The large door split in two, separating and moving into the walls. Nihlus looked up, looking into the room and around him and the group, a confused look on his face.

Dr. Eisley motioned the guards to stand in guard, two outside of the procedure room and two to remain beside her. She was in her mid-thirties, most of her life she was an earthborn; even her own mind was stuck on Earth, to protect it and its people. Cerberus meant that, even if it meant she had to work under someone like Dr. Finnegan. To Eisley, Finnegan had an amazing and curious mind, but was obsessive. She was focusing on many projects at this time, even if Subject Icarus intrigued her. She pushed the man on the wheelchair into the room. She never had said a single word to the man, but she never had to. It wasn't her job to. She dared to.

"I hope your stay is better than it seems," the doctor said. The man sat there, soundless and motionless, as if dead himself. The door behind them, her assistant passed her an approached several men and women, some of them were just specialists, in case something was to stress the subject. Two of them were interrogators, codenamed Black and White. They weren't part of this certain cell, but they were of Cerberus, even though anyone in a single cell wouldn't have information of the other cells except for their existence and project goal. She spoke again, "Come sir, we have work to do."

Nihlus looked up towards the chair in front of him and the people around it. They all stared at him, some filled with anger, some with fright, and some with a passive imagination. Nihlus, familiar with the cart under him after all this time, gripped the arms of the chair, struggling to lift himself up. The doctor tried to assist him, Nihlus quickly got up, showing no need or request of help. He stood straight, observing the room and looked up, seeing the glassed frame of the observation room. There he saw the good doctor. On several occasions, Nihlus asked his name and the only reply he always got was;

"I am the doctor."

Doctor. Nihlus wondered and hated that word at the same time. A lot of the people here either doctors…or Mr. or Mrs., or Sirs or ma'ams. Well, he didn't hate them, just found them highly annoying. So smug and proud of themselves like the Templars. If they were Templars, all the more reason to escape. But Templars would know what a mage was. In fact, anyone should know of their abilities.

Nihlus approached the chair, turning and resting himself on it. When two of the specialists came towards him to apply the restraints, he noticed a table next to his chair; a simple rugged bag, and two vials …containing his freedom. He grinned to himself, trying to disguise his glee. Only Eisley noticed it, but she shrugged it off. Nihlus looked at her, speaking with confidence, "Oh today is going to be a good day, Milady."

"Excuse me?" the doctor asked, turning her head in confusion. But Nihlus sat silent, even as the restrain cuffs and the nodes of medical devices attached to his person. The chair started to move backwards, the doctor moved to the subject side, and noticed a patch on his left shoulder; she took the cloth in her hand and examined it.

"What does this represent?" the doctor asked one of the assistants. The assistant was confused and only looked at the patch.

"Not anything of regulation ma'am," the assistant said, "Subject Crazy over here must have made it."

"I highly doubt he had the neither time nor patience to make something without our notification." Eisley tapped a few figures on her data pad, the subject's biometrics loading up for her personal view. But her face turned her attention to the subject, when it began to speak again;

"Vigilance. And your observations are horrible by the way." The subject was now staring at her; she felt as if he was peering into herself.

"Vigilance? What are you being vigilant about?"

"Anything at this point," the young mage spoke, turning his head back to center the door in front of him. A voice then rang throughout the room, everyone's attention turning towards observation room, even Nihlus, who bent his head backward, trying to see the bastard.

"Dr. Eisley, I don't have all day, today is our final chance to get some answers. Project _Asclepius _has no more time for your 'safety of the subject.'" Dr. Finnegan said through the observation room's speakers.

"Yes Doctor…" Dr. Eisley said somberly, staring at the subject again. She caught him staring again; his hair was clearly growing back, despite the process they had to go through shaving him for the ECT sessions. "Begin the interrogation," she said as two men walked up, one grabbing the bag on the table. The subject spoke directly to Eisley, with a calm voice;

"It'd probably be best if you left the room."

"Shut it!" one of the interrogators yelled out with a British accent, throwing out a punch towards the subject's face. It was the one who referred himself as "White." Nihlus grunted in pain, the bruise from the impact of the padded glove the man wore would surely leave a mark. The two interrogators were armored, which would be considered weird to any normal person, but to Nihlus, it wasn't unusual for a Templar to be fairly equipped for the interrogation of any mage. The mage looked back at his assaulter, calmly speaking, "you can stay, it be a shame of you miss the show. Can't wait to break your neck."

"I break yours before you do mine, you bloody twig!" White said, aiming another fist at the man's face. Nihlus didn't flinch, even as the man called Black grabbed White's arm and pulled it back away from the young mage.

"Enough!" the man said. White soon calmed down, turning towards the door and leaning against it. Black panted from the exhaustion just trying to hold that tank of a man back. Black was not heavy set, but in his line of work, he didn't need to be. He looked back at the subject, saying, "Ok, enough excitement for today," he breathed in another puff of air before resuming, "so Nihlus…glad to see you awake? Feeling better I hope?"

"Stuff your skirt under that armor up your ass and tie a knot," the subject barked back, "I've seen Mabari with more balls than you. At least your friend is willing to get his hands dirty." The subject remained motionless, it would be expected that any restrained subject would be moving. To Black it was a little disturbing but he continued, approaching the table and taking a vial in his hand.

"So Nihlus is it. I hear you're quite the biotic. Any enthusiasm to give us a clue how you were able to acquire such talent."

"Sure, I was locked up in a tower for twenty years of my life," the subject answered.

"I'm sure someone of your abilities would let a simple tower stand in front of you? And how does a tower uphold your abilities?" the man asked.

"It doesn't but it explains why I was there."

"I know not what you mean."

"Speak not of what you do not know and speak of what you do."

Black rested one of hands on his side, taking the vial and looking at it in the air through his visor.

"Such an interesting concoction. Any enthusiasm to say what it is? Our research is coming up with element zero, but something completely different."

"Again you speak of what you do not know," the mage said. "That is my personal supply…or what was left of it. And no, I do not know of its creation. Only the dwarves handle that."

"Dwarves?" Eisley spoke up, as her data pad was recording the entire conversation, by text and voice.

"Yes? You have no knowledge of the deep children? What rock in these deep roads have you been living under for so long?" Eisley kind of felt insulted, but she shrugged it off, turning back to the subject's bio-metrics, only noticing a small increase of a mass effect field, but only a small increase. Nihlus turned back to see the other man, White, approaching him in haste. White grabbed the collar of Nihlus's garb, yelling at the man's face.

"Oh shut up, you blasted putrid speck of cosmic dust! You will tell us what we want to know," the man quickly grabbed the vial out of Black's hand, taking the cork out, grabbing the man's cheeks and shoving the vial into the man's mouth. The blue liquid quickly exited the vial, and entered the man's throat. The familiar sting of the blue liquid burned through his throat, but he knew that this man's just made his last mistake…but something else happened. A violent shudder flowed throughout the room, and a large explosion was heard, muffled by the thick walls of the room. Everyone was looking about, Black and White stepped away from the subject, Nihlus still coughing on the liquid he was served.

"What the hell was that?!" Black yelled out. Meanwhile in the observation room, Finnegan and the observers around him scuttling around. The reports from the terminal controllers and the security guard were alarming…and Finnegan finally made a decision. He punched in his clearance code into his Omni-tool, which signaled into all the communication of the building.

"…All staff, prepare to evacuate. We have a security breach. All research is to be terminated…Sight Eidyia is officially shut down," the good doctor said. As the several assistants looked around the room, the two interrogators stayed near the subject and the guards stepped towards Dr. Eisley, taking away from the chair.

"Doctor, protocol has been authorized…we have to euthanize the patient!" the guard whispered.

"I will not! He may be a freak but he's not worth killing." She remembered all the times she had said the word freak during her sessions with the man. She was a doctor and it made her feel guilty, she wasn't about to kill a man just because Finnegan was a failure himself. And now security breaches to top it all off. "Cerberus can still use him alive!" A sound was heard. Eisley could see electricity sparking off the subject's restraints in the background. Her eyes widened as she looked past the guard's shoulder.

A flash was seen.

* * *

_**En Route to Phi-Tech Pharmaceuticals Research and Development Zakera Ward Office.**_

"Shit!" A missile passed by the sky car, impacting into the one behind it. Shepard and her team were shook by the shockwave, as Bailey tried to remain control of the vehicle.

"When did the Citadel become a battle zone?" Garrus said sarcastically.

"Since Saren decided to attack the Citadel," Bailey replied, still struggling with the sky car's controls. "My sergeant just informed me that the Bloodpack strolled in the basement floors of the building. I hope you're ready Shepard."

"Just land the damn car! My team can handle their own!" Shepard shouted as more shots ricocheted and missiles shot around the car. On the building, the sky car pavilion was heavily being hit, Bloodpack vorcha and C-Sec constantly shooting each other back and forth. As Shepard and company's sky car landed on the pavilion, without trying to distract Bailey, she asked. "What the hell was your sergeant thinking when he decided to run off halfcocked against Bloodpack?"

Bailey didn't answer until they got out of the sky car. C-Sec had already constructed makeshift barricades; most of them were completely under-armed for a situation like this.

"I'll ask him… Sergeant!" Bailey yelled out. A turian who was shouting out orders to the agents turned around walked toward the group. The turian saluted the group, saying with confidence, "Sir!"

Bailey grabbed the collar of the turians cowl, pulling him face to face. "What the hell is going on Sergeant!?"

"Sir…we saw the Krogan and his gang pulling into the under-structure…We thought it necessary to investigate the situate"

"Don't sir me, son. You'll be lucky to be working a desk after making this tower a warzone." The turian looked down, after Bailey let his collar go, solemnly saying;

"Sorry…Sir. I got news though." Shepard walked up to the turian agent, Garrus and Kasumi following along.

"I need a sit-rep, sergeant," she said with that commanding attitude in her voice.

"Spirits…Commander Shepard..."

"Sit-rep…now!" the commander shouted, gaining the attention of several officers, who quickly turned their attention back to the Bloodpack who were shooting at them. They remembered that they had to actually not get their heads blown clean off.

"Yes Ma'am!" The turian said, straightening up his stance. "We got a truckload of vorcha in the high levels, and another truckload in the lobby… They got the main doors barricaded. You'd need explosives to get it. Other than that, we have a pissed off Krogan, scans show he's in the center of the building…but we can't tell where; the sensors are all construed." Celest and her squad immediately all thought it was definitely Cerberus, who else wouldn't want C-Sec poking into their business?

"Shepard, I know we're on a suicide mission, but adding another one to the list wasn't one the agenda," Garrus said. Shepard looked back at him through her goggles.

"What's the matter Garrus? Can't take another missile to the face? Sorry but I'm afraid your face can't get any uglier," she said, upholstering her pistol, watching it unfold in her hands. Kasumi followed, pulling out Shuriken SMG, smirking at the remark;

"Damn Garrus. I believed they call that a burn. Do want some ice?"

"All I'm saying is that we need some sort of plan here," Garrus replied. "And no I don't," his mandibles flanging as he finished, lifting off his Mattock from the back of his armor.

"I always have a plan Garrus," Shepard shrugged, starting off towards the makeshift cover of sky cars and the barricade lobby door. Her Omni-tool lit up, and her Tech-Armor powering up, covering up her arms, her chest and upper torso, and overlaying her recon hood as well. A little extra armor never hurt anyone. Garrus and Kasumi started to follow her, but as soon as Shepard started to put herself into a sprint, Garrus started running after her, as if he could catch up. Kasumi merely cloaked herself. The Bloodpack, just noticing the two "visible" specialists, started to aim for them, slugs bouncing off their shields and Celest's armor. Kasumi was already passed the figurative no man's land, taking cover at the corner leading to the main floor door. Shepard and Garrus joined her.

"Kasumi, open the door!" Shepard yelled out. The master thief plucked from covering sending an overload to automated door's systems. The doors slowly opened but a mess of explosives and objects stood in the way of the hallway behind the door. Shepard took a quick glance at the barricade, spying an explosive canister in the corner bottom of the barricade. She shot at the canister, barely hitting the top of it, but it was leaking fuel quickly. She charged up her Omni-tool, sending a plasma charge at it. The next thing Celest and her team knew was that fiery explosion bursting out of the doorway going in each direction; into the lobby and onto the pavilion.

As the explosion cleared, the team went in, quickly disabling any Vorcha standing in their way. They cleared the room, Shepard had already signaled Bailey that they were in the building, and Kasumi had already found a computer console.

"Kasumi, status."

"This terminal doesn't have access to anything, its scrap."

"Great, Cerberus likes to keep secrets even from their front-man lobby," Garrus said, his eyes scanning the doors inside the lobby.

"Yeah…wait something's off." Shepard said, seeing a large black door next to an elevator. "Kasumi, I want that room opened and I need you going through it like a blood hound."

"Aye-aye." Kasumi signed off quickly taking off to the room. She quickly entered the room, but after a few minutes of waiting, Kasumi called out to them. They both entered the room, Garrus staying on look out.

"This is an access terminal to the inner facility." Kasumi stated, her fingers nimbly moving on the terminal screen.

'Inner facility?" Shepard asked. "How big is this place?"

"A lot bigger than the outside…a lot bigger than the Citadel Property management would want," Kasumi grinned, "This place is boring, Shepard. I thought Cerberus would have better security."

"Don't jinx it, Goto."

"Lighten up, Garrus."

"Ok, Ok. Garrus still needs to work that stick out of his ass." Shepard said, grinning under her hood. "But tell me this, anything on Subject Icarus?

"Hmm." Kasumi wondered, her hooded eyes scanning the screen. "Hey, I got something!" She dashed a couple keystrokes, scaling up the data file on the terminal. Few words were actually shown, but a large photo was shown. Shepard looked at the photo of the man. The man was young, clearly twenty years old or older. An odd tattoo on his face, and a burn patch on his ear. The man looked tough but he looked like he didn't belong. To Shepard, something was off. It was bad enough that the Illusive Man didn't give any information on the subject, but the fact that the facility was experimenting on him. The words under the dossier photo were plain and simple;

**EXTREMELY DANGEROUS: CAUTION DURING INTERROGATION AND EXPERIMENTATION.**

Another explosion was heard, an explosion that even alarmed Shepard.

"Kasumi get me a layout of this place, we need to follow the explosions."

"Right, give me a moment." Garrus and Shepard exited the room, leaving Kasumi to her work. Kasumi quickly exited right behind them. Shepard and Garrus gave each other a glance. Kasumi spoke up;

"I got it, that explosion came from the upper levels, something called Procedure Local. One of its security doors was just rocked off his hinges." She approached the elevator, quickly signaling for its return to the floor.

"Damn, she's good. I've seen techs here at C-Sec take days doing what she did in a moment," Garrus said, as the two quickly followed Kasumi to the elevator door. The elevator soon arrived and Kasumi got on first, turning around and saying mockingly with a grin to her face;

"And don't you forget that Varian." Celest followed, and Garrus shook the stun off his face and followed as well. With the close of the elevator doors and the input of the floor, the three-man squad was off, into a hell hole.

* * *

_**Procedure Room**_

A flash is all it took before the two men were stunned. A bright wisp flowed in the man's hand, blinding the two interrogators, even though they had their visor's tint at maximum. Nihlus was enjoying this too much. "_Finally some lyrium in my blasted veins!"_ he thought to himself. As the two men were blinded, Nihlus quickly summoned some lightning into his palm, striking the metal restraint. Even though he received some of the shock, the electronic wrist restraint overloaded, immediately unlocking. He then broke the wisp, doing the same in his other hand and to the other restraint. He knocked back the man named White, with telekinetic blast to his helmet. The man crashed violent into the forward wall, breaking his neck, Nihlus shouting out, "I was right! That was enjoyable!"

From Eisley's view, she saw the subject demonstrate his powers while conscious, but she also saw the death of White. He did deserve it though. But soon Black followed him, the subject quickly pushed Black before he could recover from the blinding light, but it was a light push. The subject reached for his leg restraints, quickly overloading them as well. But White had recovered faster than the subject had projected and the guards were already on the subject's tail. Her assistants and colleagues were by the door, trying to get it open and escape the subject's display of power.

The guards opened fire, and even though the sound was unholy to Nihlus, he still reacted. Like any bolt from a crossbow, he summoned up an arcane shield, and the impacting objects impacted but didn't ricochet, merely falling to the cold metal floor. Nihlus needed to end this fight, even though he had another vial of lyrium, he would be left with none if had to consume another.

The guard's weapons hadn't put the subject down. Eisley was staring at a major threat. She backed away as two guards looked there dumbfounded. Although the shield was strong, it was still cracked. But something dangerously incredible happened. The subject flung his hand toward the guard, and the shield separated into shards, flying into the guards; the shards shredded their armor, piercing and ripped through their bodies. Each guard now laid dead, and the subject merely turned to his attention to Black, who had a large knife.

Nihlus simply chuckled at the man; he approached the table next to the chair, grabbing his bag and the last vial of lyrium, placing in the bag and buckling it onto his waist. Black lunged at Nihlus, but the young mage simply caught the interrogator's arm, twisting and turning the man's blade into his jaw; all while the blade remained in his hand. Again that phylactery was paying off. Spirits should be trusted more often. In Black's helmet, he coughed up blood as he stood in his dying moments, looking into the man's light blue eyes, the eyes of the killer.

The body dropped, White was dead, Black was dead, and the guards were dead. Eisley was alone…she thought she was next. But the subject…Nihlus, just turned towards her. Amazingly she wasn't hit by the shards of shields the subject sent out to maim and kill the guards. They were not anything like kinetic barriers; it was a lot more solid. Something more complex. By that time, her colleagues had escaped outside the room, the outside guards had probably left already; she was all alone. And now, he was staring again. But he merely winked; turning his attention to the door, his body engulf by a corona of energy. He stretch out his hand, glowing with violent energy. The energy shot from his hand impacting the door with tremendous force, tearing it off the frame into the the hallway, slamming into the opposite wall of the hallway with a loud clamor of noise. The frame was torn and ripped, the doors were smashed and pummeled by that simple wave of the hand.

With his way clear, Nihlus again looked again to Eisley. He felt that killing her was simply out of place. She was not a threat. Merely an instrument. The Qunari would say she was merely performing her role. But so were the others he had killed; but they stood in his way. She did not.

With another nod, he said;

"I'm sure we will meet again doctor," as he stepped out, the magical energy searing off his own body. He stared at the fleeing humans down to his right in the hallway and shouted;

"I will show why Mages are feared!" A red hot ball of flame formed in his hands and quickly launched towards the fleeing group. The fire soon engulfed them, and Nihlus simply stood there, looking down, whispering to himself as they screamed in agony;

"_Magic exists to serve man, and never to rule over him. _

_Foul and corrupt are they_

_Who have taken His gift_

_And turned it against His children._

_They shall be named Maleficar, accursed ones._

_They shall find no rest in this world_

_Or beyond."_

Nihlus turned to his attention to the ping of the doors to the moving room; down to his left, the same moving room he exited out off. Whatever came next was to fall, as the last.

* * *

_**(A/N: And there is the next chapter, folks, edited for clarity from previous chapters! Now it won't be till after the holidays until Part 3, but nonetheless, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Don't forget to leave a present and review please.)**_


	6. Closer To the Edge: Part 3

**Disclaimer: All Characters, lore, and locations of Mass Effect and BioWare belong to BioWare. The story is of my own thought.**

**Inspired by totallybursar's Stars Fade. Please for the love of all that is beautiful, read this story, Stars Fade is a work of art. The writing is superb!**

**Chapter Title: Courtesy of 30 Seconds to Mars for their awesome inspiration.**

* * *

"_Closer To The Edge: Part 3"_

_*Beep…Beep…Beep…Beep.*_

The elevator doors finally opened after several minutes of blasted elevator music and having Garrus and Kasumi bicker at one another. But when those doors opened, both knew that it was time to get their game faces on. The doors opened wide to the site of the hallway. After that large explosion that got their asses moving, Shepard wasn't going to let the Bloodpack destroy a whole tower. But this was strange, very strange. The hallway that they could see was all but damaged.

"_More than likely…the Bloodpack already had the floors that were a cover for Cerberus. It's possible that Cerberus didn't know until the last moment…" _Celest thought to herself as the group un-holstered their weapons, Garrus his assault rifle, Kasumi her submachine gun, and her own pistol. Shepard led the way first, quickly scanning the hallway. Her attention was brought to the doors lining the sides of the hallway. She took a step towards the door, peering inside the small window on the one door to her right. Garrus and Kasumi quickly followed, Garrus making haste to take point to cover Shepard.

"Well?" Garrus asked.

"Nothing," Shepard said with a low tone, staring into the bright room, "Nothings in there. And thank god for that."

"Nothing in here either Shepard," Kasumi replied.

"Good, I'd rather have empty rooms than dead rooms," Celest said, immediately stepping away from the door and heading forwards into the hallway.

Garrus looked back at the two, his mandibles flinching as Shepard past him, "You know Shepard. I'm surprised Cerberus doesn't have better security…And I'm surprised these cells aren't well…full."

"It was an undercover cell Garrus," Shepard replied. "If Cerberus filled all these cells….I'm sure people would be asking a lot more questions. Now let's get a move on." The two quickly followed, Kasumi beginning to say;

"Besides this place was a closed network. They didn't want anyone from their front group or anyone else for that matter knowing about it. The only thing odd was why tha-," Kasumi stopped mid-sentence, immediately grabbing her nostrils with her free hand." Ugh! What is that stench?!"

"You know this by now Goto."

"I should know what Garrus?"

"Burning Flesh..."

"I don't think I'll ever have an appetite again…I miss it already."

"Quiet you two! I hear something!" Shepard whispered singling towards the corner, with her pistol raised to the ceiling. A clamor of noise was rising beyond the corner of the hallways, several pings like the elevator door, and a voice…

"I'll rip you to shreds, human! If it's the last thing I do!" The loud bellowing voice announced.

"Well, I guess that's our krogan…sounds like Fallik hasn't changed a bit."

"Knew him, Garrus?"

"Remember Garm?" the turian renegade replied. "Well Fallik was an enforcer for his bloodpack…smart son of a bitch too. For a krogan of course."

"Not smart enough," Shepard said, immediately turning the left corner, beholding the sight before her. Burned bodies…everywhere…the sight was kind of sickening, in an "I'm going to gut the person who did this," kind of meaning. Behind her hood, her face was with disgust, but then her attention turned elsewhere. A pair of blown off doors, burned bodies of vorcha, one was headless, and an angry krogan standing in an elevator at the end of the new hall, its doors closing just in time for Shepard to see its sneer. "Shit..." She whispered to herself.

Garrus and Kasumi followed her around the corner, both their weapons up and ready for battle.

"Huh. Smart enough to run away from Commander Shepard it seems." Garrus said kicking a very crispy fellow, to make sure the poor soul was out of his misery. "Well whoever did this, obviously knows his way around an Omni-tool."

"There's many other ways to burn someone, Garrus." Shepard corrected.

"Riiiight. Only Commander Shepard would know all nine hundred ways to burn a body."

"More like nine hundred and one," Shepard commented.

"Honestly Shepard, I've never seen a plasma charge burn someone like this...this thing looks like it took a prod to it and left it on," Garrus replied staring at vorcha beneath his feet. "Plus, this looks more like an electrical burn, remember I was part of C-Sec."

"Ok, Sherlock, care to 'deduce' what went down here?" Shepard commented, Kasumi chuckling to herself.

"Nothing good, I'm sure," his head immediately turning towards a sound.

"Shit! Help! Please!" a voice shouted, obviously pleading for help. Garrus was the first to hear it, immediately turning around towards the corner. He ran passed the corner, going left into the other hallway. Shepard and Kasumi quickly turned around and followed both weapons at the ready. They turned the corner, and saw a woman, being helped up by Garrus. The woman was stammering, struggling to get her breath up to speed. Garrus raised the woman to set her down, resting her back to the wall. The woman spoke up, speaking frantically at the group;

"You have to stop them! They'll tear this place to rubble!"

"Who are you?" Shepard asked. Then woman looked at the woman in front of her. "C-C-Commander Shepard?" The woman stuttered, "THE Commander Shepard?"

Shepard padded the back of her neck, kneeling down staring at the woman through her recon goggles. "Look, I'm not here to sign autographs, or make insight into the wonders of science. I'm here to do a job. Now I'll ask again, who are you and are you ok?"

"My name is Dr. Eisley…and I'm fine, I'm just hysterical. You have no idea what the hell happened!"

"Ok, Dr. Eisley...I need you to calm your ass down. And tell me, who are you talking about?" Celest said her hand placed on the wall before her, right next to Dr. Eisley's shoulder.

"Ok…ok…its Subject Icarus…he escaped."

"Escaped?" Garrus asked, "You people and biotics seem to just not mix."

"He's not a normal biotic…he's something entirely different." Eisley replied, her face still wide-eyed. "Look, we have had this subject for six months and just nothing! He's not normal! Subject Zero records don't even show this. What he does is impossible? Dr. Finnegan and I are convinced he's something unnatural. With the Bloodpack and all…God he fought a krogan and some vorcha. I don't think the subject realizes the danger he's in, and I don't think the krogan knows what its getting into!"

"I really don't think pissed off krogan with an army of vorcha is doing nothing but making short work of this guy." Shepard exclaimed, rising from her kneeled position. "Ok, where is this idiot?"

"Wait!?" Eisley shouted, "Didn't you the bodies!? They're burned aren't they!"

"So?" Shepard asked, her emotionless mask still staring at the good doctor.

"Subject Icarus is a biotic...I shared the information with colleague in another cell," the doctor explained, with Shepard listening." Its quite hard to prove unless you see it, but he thinks that the subject has a tighter control on his biotics, enabling to create fields small and complex enough to be able to manipulate atoms...and maybe to create fire at will. Thus the bodies. But, his abilities could range to anything. We simply don't know though...Finnegan had us too focused on who he is and not on what he is."

"Look, Dr. Eisley," Shepard said calmly, "it sounds a bit far fetched, but until I see it, I don't know. But look, he needs to be recovered. This facility is lost, so I need to find him..do you know where?"

"From what I saw. He…he's up in the observation room. The main elevator to it is in the other hallway." The doctor replied.

"What about down this one?" Kasumi asked.

"That just leads to the other procedure rooms…everyone was evacuated before us…Icarus delayed our room considerably…God they're all dead."

"Alright…we got to get to that room then…before this Icarus becomes a smear on someone's wall." Shepard said, "Dr. Eisley are you going to be alright, are you injured?"

"Just go up a floor in that elevator and you'll find the room as the closest door. But no I'm fine…I know a few nooks and crannies I can get into to get out of this mess…But Commander, give the man his freedom...its best we don't know what it is."

"I can't guarantee that...have to see if he pisses me off first."

"Thank you, Commander Shepard," laughing

"All in a day's work good doctor, I'm sure we'll meet each other again soon enough." Shepard said, "Come on, we got a job to do." The group gathered their attention to the task at hand, rushing back to the elevator pass the torn off door. The smell of burned flesh was still in the air, some of it was still roasting from open flame. Shepard was still wondering. Wondering how something unlike natural or unnatural fire could make burns like these. Her days in the engine room…in the old SSV Trenton…fires broke out of all kinds. Magnesium fires, hydrogen fires, electrical fires, and even fires from leaking of element zero. But when her biotics came into full fruition…the corona that would form around her through every use, it felt like her skin burned from all that energy, like an irritating rash. And with the upgrades that Cerberus put in her…the burning sensations were even more intense. No matter what armor she had on…her biotics were like fire.

_"What the fuck have I stepped into now?"_

As they passed the blown away doors, Garrus stopped for half a second, staring into the procedure room. Two bodies…both dead. Not a single bullet seemed to be fired…

"Who the fuck are we dealing with Shepard?" he asked.

"Whoever managed to piss off a krogan, Garrus? I don't why you're so worried. I do that on a regular basis," Shepard replied.

"Spirits…" he whispered as they continued onto the elevator, after Garrus spotted the shattered glass of the observation room. A dark shadowy figure passed the opening, like a dark specter from the dead. He pushed it off, walking back into the elevator, the doors closing right behind him.

"Your people ever believed in magic, Garrus...I mean, your people do revere some Spirits," Shepard asked.

"Not for some time, why? You don't believe in that crap. This punk probably just has her psyched out."

"I don't know Garrus...from what we've seen. I'd believe anything at this point," She said, her back leaning the elevator, her pistol in hand.

"Anyone miss stairs? I remember those things…the things we all used to walk on…Seriously though, what is with Cerberus and elevators." Kasumi stated as the elevator started to move up a floor.

* * *

As the door to the moving room began to split open, Nihlus was already blaring with energy. He laid down several glyphs down the floor of the hall; a repulsion glyph closest to his person, several paralysis glyphs around the hall to halt the first ones to come out, one standing guard in front of the double doors. And finally a ward glyph was placed under him, its boons immediately activating around his person. The weapons these men and women were carrying were not to be trifled with. If anything, whoever was in this door was well armed, the ward should block the bolts for a time, long enough for him to kill them all before they had a chance to react. In a moment, he laid another repulsion glyph on one of the current glyphs. In his mind, this was a sure-fired plan. A sure surprise for the fools.

But instead, a surprise for him was waiting beyond those doors. At least five short stature creatures stood in front of a shadowy behemoth blackened by the distance between him and them. The creatures, to Nihlus, looked like they came from a Hurlock's worst nightmare. If anything they were to be darkspawn themselves, but with his own connection to the taint and the Fade he would of sensed them. He did not, so that thought was out of the question. The creatures all pulled out the strange sleek crossbows, ones that seemed heavier than the ones he had witnessed before. The eager creature, stepped forward, and Nihlus could only grin as the energy started to warp at the creature's first step.

As the creature's step finally hit the floor, the glyph dissipated as a green energy wrapped around the vermin's body. The rest of the creatures looked stunned for a second, their eyes unblinking not for a second. One of them, its weapon drawn, poked at the body, it being completely unresponsive. But its attention grew elsewhere. The vermin looked straight at Nihlus, but it was as if it was staring at something else, behind him as if. The young mage turned around at a sound, as if someone had hit a very hard object. It was Eisley, tripping over one of the busted large metal doors. She was probably trying to get away unseen, turns out tripping on a door and seeing vermin coming out the moving room obviously wasn't a part of her plan.

But Nihlus turned back towards the creatures, the curious one raising its weapon. It was as if time was slowing down as the other three were rapidly coming down the hall. The curious one started to unleash a hail of bolts at the mage and the good doctor, the rapid bolts hitting across Nihlus's ward. But the good doctor wasn't going to be so lucky if the ward either fell or the bolts went around the ward all together. As the vermin got closer, they continued to ignore what was right beneath them. One by one the creatures froze in place, but one of the vermin evaded the remainder of the glyphs, including the combo glyph, heading straight to the repulsion. The creature stepped onto its intricate design. Before the glyph's magic activated, the creature edged its claw onto the trigger of its weapon; a large spray of bolts shot out like lightning, a majority hitting the ward, immediately fracturing it. The ward faded away, so too its glyph. With no defenses left, the young warden was quickly running out of options.

But the glyph the creature was standing on, activated; the energy radiated from the center of the glyph, repulsing the creature back from Nihlus. But the blast blew back Nihlus as well. All about his strategy was to just merely to control their numbers, but it turned out that he focused too much on them, and not enough on himself.

The repulsion knocked the wind out of him, slamming him back into the side of the wall, landing on top of one of the broken doors on the floor. His head was throbbing, the air from his lungs completely knocked out. His disorientated mind was trying to make sense his current surroundings, his situation, and his predicament.

_"Never will I try and find a fight again...just never," _ the warden thought to himself, struggling to get up, his muscles and bones, sore from the blow and the landing; a feeling that he hadn't felt since his arrival in these deep roads...If they were in the deep at all. He formed a small healing arc around him, to at least slow the pain.

But he couldn't take too much time for himself, he was sure that the creatures' stasis would end soon. Magic doesn't nor will ever last forever.

The healing arc halted, and he rose from the metal cold door, looking at the frozen creatures, and the shadowy behemoth behind him, it standing still behind all the vermin, like a hulking sentinel.

The mage patted the back of his head, to check himself before his renewed assault._ Well at least I won't bleed out like an idiot,_ he thought to himself, squeezing his hand tight, a corona of energy building up around his fist, and himself again once more. He opened his hand, lightning arching between his fingers as he took several breaths. The energy in his hand increased with every breath, the lightning arcs increasing with ferocity. Nihlus looked at the vermin in the hallway, his vision fading a bit from the impact to his head. A few of the creatures had already exited the stasis they entered. The repulsed one was already trying to stand back up, holding itself up against the wall, its weapon in hand. The vermin hissed at Nihlus, its needle like teeth sneering at the young mage. It raised its weapon, firing a few unfocused shots at the mage. One of the bolts skinned across, ripping through the strange cloth the Cerberus Templars placed him in, and also breaking the skin. The sudden pain rushed up his leg, bringing him to one leg.

More of the vermin were exiting their stasis. Now was the time for action. Pain had to beyond his current thought. With a reach of his right arm, focusing on the nearest creature, the lightning exited from his hand, arching towards the nearest creature. The lighting burned into its skin, its bloodshot eyes, and even the weapon was shocked by the burst of electricity. Then the sparks grew a life of their own. The sparks reached for their next victim, doing the same to it as it did the last. As the lightning shot between each of the bodies, almost instantly the one behind the arc was already dead, seared and lifeless as it fell to the floor.

As the lightning finally subsided, the Warden spotted one survivor, it was seriously on its last leg. One of its eyes was virtually gone, whatever was left of it, if any at all, was the dust the lightning had burned off. Nihlus decided to put the creature out of its misery, getting up from his crouched position, the pain in his leg still burning slightly. He couldn't heal it at the moment, he needed the remainder of his energy to escape, and he was on his last vial of lyrium... Using that was not an option. Nihlus gathered a small ball of fire, flinging at the creature. When the ball impacted with the vermin's body, the fire engulfed the entire thing. The creature screamed violently, flailing as the fire devoured its horrible form. After a moment, the screams halted, the body slumping to the ground as the fire started to die down. Nihlus was anything but satisfied. In fact, he was damn tired already.

The exhausted mage slumped to his knees, not because of his leg wound, but because of the drain on his mana.

_"You weak willed bastard...twenty seasons in the tower only strengthened your reserve. Needles filled with strange liquid and months of bed rest shouldn't put me down this far. I might need to...no...never. I'm better than that...I'm the bloody Warden I killed the Archdemon...Well...I sure hope I did!" _

As he breathed in the stale air, low, loud and multiple thuds were heard. Nihlus raised his head from the sight of the metal floor, only to see a massive reptilian creature standing in front of the moving room. As the doors closed behind it, the creature snorted and a low growl emanated from its throat.

_Maker, please tell me it doesn't breath fire…_Nihlus thought, staring at the drake-like creature, his exhaustion slowly calming down. Even though his corona was still as bright as ever, his skin was starting to itch from the aura of magic; usually something like this would be over in a heartbeat. But with his previous place of stay, his thoughts and his body weren't really up to speed. This whole escape plan of his wasn't really the well-thought out plan in all of Thedas. "_Maker, I feel like Loghain…"_

The drake-like creature was clad in black thick armor with a blackened crest with pale scale. It moved its arms behind its back, reaching for something. The creature pulled large green looking monster of a weapon…much, much larger than the weapons the vermin were using. Nihlus analyzed the creature, at this point he was just guessing. Nothing was normal.

_"Hmm, large weapon, large beast...I wonder if it has any relation to the Qunari. But than again, this lizard bastard doesn't look the religious type," _the Warden thought to himself, bracing himself on his knee as he stood up. He looked at the beast, projecting a small aura of energy wisping around his person. It was an attempt to stare down the creature. Somehow in Nihlus' mind, that was an idiot move. The creature just grinned.

"I don't know what you or those things are," Nihlus said, trying to communicate with the beast, "but I don't think you know what you are dealing with. The large creature's jaw moved as if it was speaking, making out words that Nihlus couldn't make out. "Well...at least it got the message...wait. What in Maker's name?!" Nihlus was staring at one of the 'dead' vermin, well at least the Warden thought it was dead. The beast noticed the victim, walking up towards it and Nihlus. The beast stared at the vermin, raising the large weapon at the vermin's head, another grin coming to its scaly face. With a pull of the trigger, the weapon roared into action, the sound loud enough to make Nihlus' ears ring out. While holding his head, the young mage looked on at the weapon; it had sprayed a cone of bolts into the creatures head, and the wall behind it. The vermin's head imploded, the shots pulverizing its skull and brain. The vermin was virtually headless, only a splattered mess was sure to be all that was left behind. The creature turned towards the mage, raising his weapon towards him. The creature started to walk as it's fist slammed against the side of the weapon, a large heated objected falling out of the side.

_"Shit!" _ the mage thought as it started to charge at Nihlus, with great haste, its black crest shining against the light of the hallway, the weapon again roaring into action and the heated pods ejecting as he fired, and the spray of bullets moving faster than anything the Warden had seen before. Nihlus was not going to get out alive if he was going to just stand here, so he "pushed" himself away. His aura intensified, the energy consuming his form until it couldn't be seen, instantly reappearing with his back against the frame of the destroyed door.

To the normal eye, a mage's "teleportation," was almost instantaneous, a short delay between travel. But a trained eye could see the energetic aura that the ability left behind. Magic only propelled the user, an increase in speed. Nothing more. It just so happened that the increase in speed was faster than the blink of an eye.

But as soon as the monstrous drake reached halfway from the moving room, the wall of bolts slamming against his cover. If he was to attempt to strike, even during the delay between the blast, it wouldn't be long enough to take this out without a distraction. But suddenly, the Maker finally smiled upon him, as he remembered that one glyph was still active. The creature ran straight into the glyph, the combo glyph, and the energy pushed the large creature back into the hallway, its back sliding against the cold hard metal floor. Nihlus looked back past the door frame, examining his work. But alas, the reptile was still concious; lying among its obvious dead allies, it starting springing up, trying to roll onto its side like an upside-down turtle. Thankfully, a green aura appeared around the creature, and it became very still, as the stasis took it over, just a moment away from its weapon.

Nihlus took a breath as the creature stood still, letting his aura die down slightly. He finally exited from his hidden position, chuckling to himself;

"By the Old-Gods! I've fought demons, dragons, darkspawn, and every single race in Thedas. But you! You….thing! This will be the only moment that I take this chance…to run away!" The mage's fingers pointing towards the broken opening into the procedure room. And soon fled the scene into the room; but at the last moment before fully going into the room, he scanned the hallway again for Dr. Eisley. Satisfied that she got away, he moved back into the procedure room, before the creature regained movement.

"I mean, I've fought a broodmother, and that thing made the broodmother look like the Divine...Great I'm talking to myself and a frozen lizard who probably can't even make out what I'm saying. Well, no point going back near that thing."

Nihlus looked up at the massive glass panels of the observatory room, saying to himself, "Well that will do." Arching his arm, he threw a small telekinetic blast at the glass, instantaneously shattering the glass. As the shards fell, the mage raised a weak shield, before the shards of deadly glass fell onto him. With that settled, Nihlus increased his concentration; bringing whatever was movable off the ground with a wave of his hand. From the medical trays to the devices, and even the chair he was strapped into; all were now floating midair, in the shape of a stair case. With a limp, Nihlus took extremely careful steps on the makeshift staircase. If he was to lose his concentration just once, well, it would be a very short escape.

As he finally stepped into the observation deck, he noticed that it was completely empty. All the chairs and the desks empty as if everyone was just turned into nothing. It was like being in the Fade almost. Even Finnegan, the bastard that Nihlus wanted to strangle personally seemed to make it out before his hands could reach him.

"If only, that bastard knew what I could really do. Heh. If anyone knew what I could really do...Well, I would be executed...Need to stop talking to myself."

But still, it was no time to linger. Heading towards the door, his head snapped back as he heard the creature bellowing from below. A shot was heard, more thunderous than the rest he had witnessed. As if by instinct, the young mage immediately dropped to the floor, yelling at himself, "Shit! Why didn't that last longer?!" The shot had pierced one of the terminals, its electricity immediately sparking from the impact of the blast. What glass remained from Nihlus' attack was surely just shattered beyond all recognition from the reptile's weapon. The creature bellowed again, before it stomped out of the room, clearly annoyed by his clever prey.

The young mage rose up after a few good minutes, breathing frantically. It wasn't a usual thing for him to be frightened, but that lizard sure had caught him by surprise. Despite a need to regenerate his mana, his leg wound, and possibly a concussion, he was fine for the moment. He had to get moving; he needed to find a way out of this maker-forsaken hellhole they call a hospice. He looked out the shattered window, in hopes of not seeing his newest enemy, staying in the shadows like a cunning rogue. But there was no massive creature, only but another figure. From what Nihlus saw, trying to keep his breathing low, it was but one of those bird creatures again.

"_Great, this scenario again…by this rate I should declare myself insane," _he thought to himself as the bird like humanoid moved down the hall towards the moving room. "_Wait..._oh shit!" He shouted as he limped towards the exit. But as soon as he reached it, the young mage was yet again face to face with the massive creature, its eyes staring directly at Nihlus and its weapon pointed at his chest. A low sound was emanating from the gaping mouth, which sounded more like a demented laugh than anything else.

"Well…at least one of us is having fun," holding his arms up in a "surrendering" position.

* * *

The doors to the elevator opened, and Shepard quickly exited with her pistol in hand, quickly running towards the first door. Her omni-tool lit up, and the schematics of the building came up. Garrus and Kasumi quickly followed, Garrus with his Vindicator, and Kasumi with her Shuriken drawn to the ready. Shepard's omni-tool was synced up with her mask's heads-up-display, a small display showing her the level that she and her team were on.

"Okay Observation room's right past this door, hopefully we didn't miss the subject." Garrus and Kasumi both yet to the opposite sides of the door, leaning against the wall as they prepared to breach the room. "Alright, Kasumi, lets get this hunk of junk open," she said.

"Got it, Shep."Kasumi replied.

Kasumi pressed her omni-tool against the holographic panel of the door, it immediately separating into pieces, and shifting the pieces into its frame. Shepard entered first, her pistol ready to fire, and her omni-tool deactivating the layout of the building level. As soon as she entered a bright ball flew past her head, impacting into the wall next to her. As it did, Shepard could immediately feel the heat come off the tiny projectile, as it exploded into a burst of flame. Ducking to avoid the small blast, she saw a non-describable figure hop over a large terminal, hiding immediately behind it. As the burst of flame died down, she rose up, her pistol aimed a the terminal but then a large blast tore through a large chunk of it. Celest could see a black-clad krogan, with a laymore no less and the multiple spent thermal clips on the ground, a few near her and the door, and even surrounding the krogan who was still firing his shotgun at the figure behind the terminal. Upon hearing the first shot, they heard, Garrus and Kasumi quickly followed Celest in the room, immediately taking cover behind the terminals on both sides of the commander. Shepard stood alone in plain view, with the krogan still blasting and roaring at whatever he was focused on.

Taking aim with her Phalanx, she fired at the large krogan, the shot reflecting of his shields. The shot than impacted a terminal, short-circuiting the advanced machinery. A VI's voice was heard, exclaiming,

"**Alert! All procedure rooms' dividers are disengaging! Please, all personal halt all operations and experiments until dividers can be repaired."**

The walls of all six of the procedure rooms, all that were fashioned in the hexagonal shape just like the observation room the observation room, started to shift and proceed into the bottom and top of the floor. The oblivious VI forgot to mention that there were no personal to begin with in the rooms at the moment. Either there were no procedures scheduled that day...or the had already been moved out of the building.

The krogan, despite hearing the same voice, still shot at his prey's hiding place, clearly not caring if his shot had caused it or not. Shepard however, wasn't waiting all day. Her biotics flared, reaching back with her right arm, flinging a ball of biotic energy at the krogan. The energy impacted the krogan; it staggered forward, losing its grip on its shotgun as it tripped over itself. The krogan halted its own fall, but the shotgun fell out of its grip, flailing off the observation deck, out one of the broken windows to the right side, and then finally falling down to the procedure room. The krogan turned around, recovering from Shepard's throw, immediately roaring at the woman.

"For a Bloodpack enforcer, you aren't very smart!" Shepard retaliated, aiming for the overgrown lizard's head. "Did you really think charging into a Cerberus base was going to be easy?"

"Hah! You know nothing. Cerberus is nothing but a bunch of cheap shots and human weaklings. Just like you Shepard. "

"You know who I am?"

"All krogan know you, Shepard," the krogan said, his shotgun still aimed for Celest's torso. "And I want your head as well, because of you, I'm out of a job. So I'm going to take your life...slowly."

"Well, that's not going to happen, especially wasting ammo like you did. Besides, this is starting to seem like a petty grudge, a 'lure Shepard into a trap and try and not get my ass handed to me, plan.'" Shepard said.

"So much arrogance. I thought you would have a better plan than that dinky thing in your hands…and coming alone...hah! A fool."

"Trust me, I'm never alone Fallik…I have my friend Dinky right here." She motioned her hands in the air, indicating her Phalanx pistol. "Plus, I don't see a weapon in your hands, and I got mine."

"Hahaha!" Fallik laughed out, "a mere technicality. You and I know both know...krogan are more than a match for one human commando."

"Pretty arrogant, considering you're looking at the barrel of a gun belonging to the first human SPECTRE!" Shepard snapped back, her finger itching towards the trigger of her pistol.

"Well, at least both of us believe this beast is an idiot." An unknown voice. Shepard raised her brow in response trying to make sense where the voice was coming from. The krogan's eyes widened, turning as fast as a krogan could to face the voice, the voice he was hunting…"_the voice he took his mind off of!"_

As the krogan turned, Shepard could already see he was distracted, keeping her aim on the krogan's back again, hoping that his shields would be taken down with a couple rounds so that the farce of a krogan would finally shut up. But a figure popped out from behind the terminal, wearing simple clothing marked with the Cerberus symbol, and a makeshift patch with a griffon on it. The man stood only below six feet. He looked leaned, probably from the lack of an actual meal. Blackened hair, with greyish blue eyes, and a small tattoo above the eye. She waived off the image and tried to keep focus on the krogan, but what if he was a threat? But shortly what she saw was shocking, no pun intended. The man's body was simply engulfed by an aura of energy, the man reached his arm out...There was no omni-tool, no device...it simply came from his arm.

Electricity flowed into the krogan, visible electricity, like lightning from an unknown storm. The krogan roared in pain as the lighting overloaded his shields, and started to singe his scales and armor. The lightning subsided, the krogan still standing, his head slumping over as it was trying to Shepard had backed off a few feet, along with Garrus and Kasumi coming out of their cover, seeing the sight before them.

Nihlus was just stared at the large lizard as his attack singed the scales of the aggressor…the womanly but soldier like voice that called it a "bloodpack enforcer." A beast was a mercenary obviously to Nihus. But the woman was a mystery. _"Shit, if I had to guess, and I rarely do, she was a golem…That voice is so life-like. Such strange people,"_ the mage thought. He saw another human pop out from behind the large objects, along with one the bird like creatures. The Warden halted his strike for a moment, letting the sound of the lightning to subside. He looked at the group beyond the lizard, staring at them, trying to size them up.

_"Well, I don't like this...last time I fried a bird I got knocked on the head...and winded up in this hellhole,"_ Nihlus thought to himself. He walked around the terminal, coming around towards the left side of the krogan. "So...you guys, look well. Armed. But at the moment, I'm pissed," he said as his magic flared up again. "So I suggest moving aside...and to stay away from me."

The krogan threw himself at the mage, and the mage responded by casting out his arm towards the creature. The warden threw a telekinetic blast at the lizard before it could reach him. The push impacted the the krogan's skull, literally throwing it aside, off the observation deck, and onto the now much more open procedure room. The blast not only took the beast, but it ripped several of the terminals out of their placement in the flooring, but the blast also pushed Shepard back as well. The typhoon of energy pushed against her body, tossing her against door. Garrus locked his sights on the man, and Kasumi rushed towards her helping her up. Shepard had been knocked on her ass before, but this was something primeval. She shrugged it off, keeping her mind focused on the subject. She got back up, aiming her pistol at the kid.

Nihlus looked on at the woman, saying;

"Told you to move..." He raised his right hand towards his forehead, "saluting" and waving off the armored woman, limping off towards the shattered glass of the window.

"Wait, hold it!" Shepard shouted.

But the warden ignored the woman, and leaped off the observation room floor, his corona of energy spiking. He released a burst of energy around his person to lighten himself. An ability he saw an escaping mage use once, right into that freezing hole of a lake. _"Well, at least he wasn't kidding when he said it worked." _The mage landed on the ground after a moment of gliding down, his injured leg was the first to land on. The mage grunted in pain, but after a quick minute, looked at the krogan.

"Now, look who's laughing now?" the mage said, chuckling to himself.

Shepard rushed over to the edge of the room, peering down into the room,"Garrus! Switch Weapons!" She yelled out.

"Spirits Shepard!" Garrus yelled out as he put his Vindicator on his mag-lock, taking out his Mantis rifle.

"Don't 'Spirits' me Garrus! Take a position, Kasumi you too!"

"Well I'm impressed." Kasumi said nonchalantly.

"Yeah, well. me too I guess," Celest said as she holstered her pistol, setting herself over the edge, trying to get herself down. "Garrus, if anything gets hinky, take a shot."

"Shoot to kill?" Garrus asked. His aim focused on the mage's person.

"Depends..." Shepard pushed herself off the edge of the observation deck, landing hard on the floor of the procedure room.

The lizard had gotten up from the throw Nihlus gave him, immediately charging for young warden. Nihlus swiftly dodged the rampaging beast. But the beast turned around, his mouth moving but the language was entirely unheard of. Nihlus was standing in the middle of the same procedure room he was being tested on, the same two bodies of White and Black still rotting away in their own pool of blood. Nihlus was contemplated using it to his advantage…more than likely this beast hasn't seen what blood magic could do…But he was a better mage than that…better than most. He wasn't going to give into the temptation. But as he thought to himself, Shepard was already on the floor, joining the spray. She saw the krogan charging right towards her as she looked up from her fall.

_"Tough bastard,"_ she thought, rolling away from the beast and quickly lifting herself up from her prone position. She immediately pulled out her Phalanx, aiming at the Krogan. Fallik had stopped at the other side of the procedure rooms, turning around and face the two humans. The human prey was breathing heavily, obviously starting to tire out. But Shepard was still standing, her pistol aimed right at him.

Nihlus was quiet for the moment, but the woman had moved herself between the best and himself, and it made Nihlus wonder.

_"What in the? Is she...defending me?" _

Standing between the two titans, Shepard glanced back at the man, her pistol still pointed at the krogan.

"Subject Icarus?" the woman asked.

Nihlus looked down at the floor for a moment, "Its a title...nothing more. A title involuntarily bestowed upon me. But for now...Yes," the mage said quietly, his aura still flaring up.

"Okay, I need to know one thing."

"Speak."

"Can you get that shotgun?"

"The what?"

Shepard looked past the mage, looking at the krogan's claymore, motioning her head towards it. She looked back at Fallik, noticing that he too spotted his shotgun on their side of the room. _"Yeah, not your lucky day."_

"This...shotgun...is beyond my skills," Nihlus said, looking ever so confused.

"Fine." Shepard pulled the trigger of her pistol, five times before she stopped. It took three to pierce the krogan's newly reformed shields, but another two to finally put the beast down. Despite that, the krogan was inching its way towards the two while Shepard fired at him. The delay in the Phalanx's firing was becoming a nuisance.

Nihlus was still looking at the "shotgun." _"What in the Maker's name is this...'shotgun?'"_ Nihlus looked at it carefully, analyzing it, not paying attention to the woman and the lizard. But when the woman pulled the trigger of her weapon...something clicked in Nihlus' mind. The air around him felt cold. Whispers started to form within his ears. He walked towards the weapon, totally ignoring the scene between the woman and the beast. The coagulated blood of Black and White, started to move bubbling as if it was boiling. It was if the blood had just been freshly spilled now, despite it being such a time since it was dropped.

_"Well well well," _a voiced whispered in the warden's mind. _"Its been so long since I've seen something like this...It seems you are in need of my assistance once more. But then again...since when do you never need my assistance."_ Nihlus' body wasn't his own now. His vision was starting to cloud, the tendrils of darkness closing around him.

_"What are...you?"_ his mind continued to say.

_"An invited guest. Now. Stop resisting. She'll be dead soon." _

_"Wait!" _ he screamed in his mind. His corona brightened up, as his hand grabbed the rather large weapon.

Shepard, amazed and not amazed at the same time, looked at the easily fallen krogan. She approached the krogan's body, kicking its arm to get a response. There was none.

"Well, that was easy...like I said." Shepard gloated, turning around with her pistol still in hand. "Whoa! Put it down!" She stared at the man, who was now aiming the Claymore directly at Shepard. The man stood silent, as his trigger finger itched towards the trigger of the colossal shotgun. "You'll break your arm like that! Put the shotgun down," Celest yelled out, but with no response. She raised her own weapon in defense. It was possible her shields could hold up against the Claymore's blast. But it was also likely that they couldn't. She stared at the biotic, looking directly into his eyes with hers. His were strange though, different from before. Almost as if they were glassed over. The dead stare continued to look back at her, both their biotics were prepared. But every stare down has to end, and the man's eyes returned to normal, the same greyish blue solemn eyes reforming, looking down at the large weapon.

"By the Old Gods… what in the Maker's name happened?" the mage said. He lowered the weapon for a second, looking at it, confused as a rampaging drunken Oghren. But there was nothing to be said after that moment. A bang rang out, echoing throughout the entire room, if not the entire building. He said nothing after, as he fell down from the impact of whatever hit him. His hand released the weapon, as it now flew from his body.

As he looked up, he could see the blinding lights of the room again, he could see the bird creature, and another human trying to get down from the observation room. He turned his head slightly, only to see the woman putting away her weapon, grabbing the larger weapon, both of them immediately shifting and folding into a smaller forms; the soldier placed both of them on her armor, the smaller on sticking to the side of her leg, and the 'shotgun' to the base of her spine. The Soldier looked at him directly through her mask.

His vision started to blur, as the blood loss continued uninterrupted. The bird kneeled down, the barrel of his weapon in his hand, standing tall next to him. An orange light shined over its arm, waving over his body. Pictures and moving objects formed above the light.

His vision turned black, his pulse slowed as the blood seeped from the wound.

* * *

_**(A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the lateness of the chapter! I'm back at school and it will take some time to write this without trying to rush. But yea there's the true meeting between Shepard and Nihlus! Hope these two don't end up killing each other! I've already begun work on the next chapter. NO, this is not the end. Just look at my profile, there's obviously more to go. Thank for the follows, the favorites, and the reviews so far. Remember, reviews are always welcome, as I am trying to improve, especially in my combat scenarios. **_

_**NOTE: The chapter has been edited for clarity and lengthening. I was disappointed with this chapter, even if it was my second draft. So I edited it, mostly because the scene between Shepard and Nihlus was well. Crap. A two year old could do better. So now it has been made more detailed. I hope you guys approve.)**_


	7. Numb

**Disclaimer: All Characters, lore, and locations of Mass Effect and BioWare belong to BioWare. The story is of my own thought.**

**Inspired by totallybursar's Stars Fade. Please for the love of all that is beautiful, read this story, Stars Fade is a work of art. The writing is superb! Also read Vergil1989 the Crossover King's ****Dragon Effect Sword, Sorcery, and Biotics. If you aren't already, no waffles for you!**

**Chapter Title: Courtesy of Linkin Park for their awesome inspiration.**

* * *

"_Numb"_

An empty sleep, an unusual thing for a Warden, but there was a mental stir. A flash of pain sprung across his body, spreading across his chest from his shoulder. The man's eyes shot opened as his hand gripped the flesh of his shoulder, digging in as the pain seared into his soul. His sight was all but crimson; the pains making his body react in such a way.

Despite his body trying to shut down to ignore the pain, he could see images, at least a blur of images, crimson blurs. He tried to speak, but the pain made whatever he uttered into a lowly groan. He looked up towards the ceiling of the room he was contained in. In his distraught mind, one thought came to mind, coherently of course.

"_Am I dead?"_

"_If you were dead, then pain wouldn't be a factor? Wouldn't it?" _A snicker rang out, the man tried to move, trying to see through the crimson veiled vision as the pain from his shoulder intensifying as he struggled. But from he could see he could only two blurs as black tendrils started to slither their way back to his vision.

"_Who said that?!" _he shouted in his mind, awaiting a response. The tendrils started to retreat as the blurs started to move closer, at an alarming rate. _"What are you?!"_

"_Emma"_ the voice said. It made no bloody sense to the warden. But still as he stared on at the blurs, their movements now increasing, still being excruciatingly blocked by the crimson tide over his vision. And now a voice in his head! It was driving him insane

"_As if I wasn't already"_ the mage thought.

But as he rambled to himself at the speed of thought, the pain then subsided for a brief moment, allowing the warden mage to lift himself on his arms. As he took the opportunity to do so, the blurs were starting to become much clearer to Nihlus. But the first thing that startled him, was not that he recognized what it was, but the realization of the pain and life he was still living, the labored painful breath as he took each one into his body. But then it became all too real, and the voice was silenced.

"SHIT!" The mage blared out in his physical voice as the blurry figure pounced on him, pushing him hard back onto his back as he struggled, his hand pushing onto the figure, trying to summon a bit of his magic to aid him. But there was nothing. Well. Nothing until the pain came back.

With the warrior-like slam, the figure ushered in a new period of pain as he felt the bone shattered within his shoulder. He continued to shout and spite against the figures, even as the one came closer to him. Closer and closer the spectator approached, a bright orange light appearing over its arm. It always meant trouble to Nihlus.

The figure trying to hold Nihlus down was losing its grip, shouting at the spectator to approach from what Nihlus could tell. The spectator approached its orange light hovering over the young warden. Despite the pain, the warden's vision started to clear, however still guised under the crimson tide of the mind's numbing effect. An older women is what the mage saw, fiddling with the orange light on her hand.

The mage turned his head over to the other figure, staring at the nearest thing he could see, its chest.

Disregarding the physic capturing plating of the armor, one thing got his attention. A large "N7" emblem on the women's… "Maker…" the mage groaned, his hand immediately springing free from the women's grip, glowing with a blue hue as it smack against her chest plate. Even black out the young mage was a dangerous foe, still pushing his limits. He was able to push the women off of his person far enough, far enough to put his other hand around the older woman's throat, tightening his hand as tight as he could. For a few moments, they stood there looking at each, the women eyes meeting Nihlus' own. He still tightened his hand, waiting for the air to escape her body. As the two committed to the standoff, the mage saw something in the elder's eyes…something that reminded him of another elder…_ "Wynne." _His eyes widened as he begun to release his grip. But in the corner of his eye, a fast and rather brutish object caught his attention; and in a split-second, his mind faded to black, his body and spirit becoming numb.

"_You are pathetic." _A voiced echoed; the last thing he could make out, all in that split second of consciousness. It was going to be a long, empty sleep.

* * *

"Garrus! Switch Weapons!" Garrus snapped his head towards the voice of the commander, following the commander to the edge of the room, looking down at scene below, the human on the floor quickly recuperating from his small spill.

"Spirits Shepard!" Garrus yelled angrily as he put his Vindicator on his mag-lock, taking out his Mantis rifle.

"Don't 'Spirits' me Garrus! Take a position; Kasumi you too!" the commander shouted out again, edging towards end of the floor of the observation room.

"Well I'm impressed." Kasumi of course, would only say that. To Garrus, only this specific human would have the carelessness to say a thing in a situation like this.

"_Well…this is Kasumi were talking about,"_ the turian rogue thought to himself, kneeling down on the floor covered with broken glass. The turian adjusted the magnification level of his scope's systems, compensating for the relatively short distance down between the observation floor and the room below.

"Yeah, well. Me too I guess," Celest said as she holstered her pistol, setting herself over the edge, trying to get herself down. "Garrus, if anything gets hinky, take a shot," she said, looking over at Garrus quickly before looking back at her prospective landing spot.

"Shoot-to-kill?" Garrus asked, his eye never leaving the scope of the large rifle, with the human biotic still within his sights.

"Depends..." Shepard pushed herself off the edge of the observation deck, landing hard on the floor of the procedure room. Garrus thought for a moment at what that meant, but the though quickly reconfigured itself to the point that Garrus knew what it meant. Shoot-to-kill became a last defense action. Kasumi took upon herself to set herself next to Garrus, her weapon pointing down towards the man, but she was mainly for support, should Garrus miss his shot.

As the scene below started to unfold, the two sat there silently, completely unnoticed by the actors below. With Shepard standing between the human and what was supposedly Fallik, Garrus kept his aim trained on the human male, his mind wondering to what happened before. _"Spirits…Shepard you really do manage to really find the strangest people in the entire galaxy,"_ the turian rogue thought to himself, his talon keeping close to the trigger of the rifle.

"Hmm" a familiar sound rang in his ears. The all too familiar loud-as-hell 'Hmm' that meant a certain someone was pondering something. "You know Garrus, if this guy lives he might of some…use to me," the Master thief said softly. Garrus's head snapped towards Kasumi, an inquisitive look taking shape on his face-plates.

"What?" the thief asked, her face utterly covered by the hood of her outfit, "Hey pay attention!"

"What?" Garrus asked, looking back at the scene in the lower room. The biotic had the krogan's shotgun…and was aiming it at Shepard!

"_Shit!" _the turian said, mentally kicking him in the ass for his lack of an attention span. He quickly reattached his sight through the modified scope of the rifle, aiming towards the glowing human. But at the last second, the human was, "relaxing" the weapon in his grip, lowering down to his waist. The man's head tilted downwards, looking at the large shotgun, muttering something to him. Garrus saw this as an opportunity, sharply aiming for the man's shoulder, pulling the trigger as tight as he could. The Mantis fired its powerful shot, slamming immediately into the shoulder of the one-man army. What would normally be kill shot, turned out to be a simple disablement, the man probably wouldn't have full function of his arm. But there was a slight problem…the damn human was bleeding out!

Garrus immediately rose up and jumped of the balcony of the observation room, rushing towards the subject as Shepard approached the man as well.

"Garrus! Get some medi-gel on that wound! Kasumi get down here!" the Commander shouted at her team, eternally pissed if this mission ended as badly as she thought it was. "Damn it Garrus I think you nicked something." She said, taking the shotgun from the subject's reach.

"Hey, if I thought you wanted him dead, it would be more than a flesh wound Shepard!" Garrus shot back, applying the medi-gel with his rifle's barrel supporting his weight as the Omni-tool worked its technological magic. _"As if magic wasn't becoming more real today…" _Garrus thought silently to himself.

Shepard just stood there, pondering on what could have just happened. Either one of them could have just died, or here she was, wrongly interpreting Garrus's actions. _"Shit…and I'm worried about them trusting me…I can't trust them totally."_ The commander thought to herself, rubbing her neck with her gloved hand. "Is he going to at least live?" she asked with a slightly apologetic tone.

Garrus looked at the scans on his Omni-tool, trying to make sense of the information; the medi-gel had set in correctly but the shot had completely shattered the shoulder bone, the medi-gel wasn't exactly stitching that correctly. "Well…I'm no expert Shepard…Chakwas is going to have a look at this…can't move him without doing any more damage," the turian said, his Omni-tool shutting down.

"Ok, Kasumi, patch me through to Bailey." Shepard said, her attention now towards Kasumi, awaiting a link to the outside of the building.

"Right…let me just boost the signal, walls are causing some…never mind, you're linked," Kasumi said, shutting her Omni-tool as well.

"Well that was fast," Garrus said.

"Please, Garrus remember who you are talking to."

"Right…"

"Cut the chatter!" the commander shouted, the two teammates immediately clamming up as. As Celest put her hand on the side of her head, tapping on the communicator to Bailey's transmissions, she continued to say, "Captain Bailey, this is Commander Shepard. I need an update on your status."

"Commander Shepard, glad to hear you're still alive. Hope you had some luck in your side of the mission," Bailey said over the line.

"With all due respect, Captain. I need an update," Shepard said, obviously annoyed with the captain's canny attitude.

"Right…Well, my officer's made it into the building. We're clearing it out floor by floor. Not much resistance on Bloodpack's side."

"Good. Listen Bailey, I have an injured personnel that needs medi-vac. Can you clear the landing pad so I can call in a shuttle?" Celest asked.

"Well I can do that…have to go through some channels. But obviously again you're a busy woman so let's don't do that and say we did," the snarky officer said.

"Thanks Bailey, I owe you one."

"Damn straight." The line of communication terminated, but Shepard quickly reconnected the line towards the Normandy's frequency. With Garrus and Kasumi keeping guard, the group was at best secure. None of the Bloodpack had either gotten through to this level, or they were killed off by the raging biotic that now lies silently on the cold metal floor.

"Normandy! Come in!" Shepard said loudly, her hand still glued to the headset of the recon mask.

"Normandy here. Can I take you order?" the voice said.

"Funny Joker," Shepard chuckled.

"Eh, I do what I can. But in all good fun, what do you need Commander?"

"Oh now he wants to be serious. I need a damn shuttle and medical crew at my location. Tell Chakwas to get her hacksaw ready."

"Alright Commander…but don't mention hacksaw ever again. Makes my bones cringe…and they can break if they cringe," Joker said, as Shepard mentally waved it off.

"In all retrospect, Mr. Moreau, your bones cannot cringe, they simply break. There is no in-between," an artificial voice said, obviously EDI…the only artificial voice on the Normandy.

"Thanks EDI…for the totally awesome observation," Joker sighed.

"You are welcome Mr. Moreau."

Shepard shook her head, turning off the transmission after saying, "Thanks Joker, Shepard out." Shepard turn towards the squad, quickly shouting out her next orders, "Okay, Garrus help me her," motioning towards the subject "Icarus." Garrus looked at the body for a second, but then joined Celest in pulling him up, and wrapping the man's arms around their own necks, along with Shepard trying not to break the man's shoulder any more than it was. "Kasumi," she said, struggling with the man's weight of and posture of the shoulder, "watch our back, we don't want any surprises…"

"Got your back Shep." As the team exited the procedure room, they had to carefully avoid the bodies and the debris from the fighting before; quickly avoiding all of that, they had made it to their elevator, and had started their descent back to ground level.

* * *

_**2185CE: **_

_**Twelve hours after Phi-Tech Incident**_

_**Normandy SR-2: Communications Room**_

The Illusive Man stood up, staring at the glowing giant of a sun as the Commander continued to speak, quickly reviewing the mission de-brief.

"…and we had gotten him to the shuttle; at the moment Dr. Chakwas has him stable, he'll make a recovery."

"A recovery from what perhaps?" the Illusive man hissed, taking another puff of the cigarette.

Celest folded her arms and continued to speak, "A shot to the shoulder, we had enough problems with a bunch of vorcha and a krogan with a petty grudge with Cerberus." She briefly looked around the room that she stood in, taking up another answer, "and a raging biotic full of drugs wasn't exactly put into the briefing report.

"To my knowledge and to the files that you so graciously gave us, what little it was, say differently, Shepard."

"Bullshit, how many people did you kill to make that thing?" Shepard shouted, pointing her finger at the Illusive Man. It was then he turned around, directly staring at the women with his cybernetic eyes.

"To my knowledge Shepard, six months of research doesn't make a human as gifted as this one. At least that is what Dr. Finnegan notes say."

"Bullshit, from what Jack says, Cerberus has been hunting to make the ultimate biotic for years. What different is this?"

"We had no knowledge he would be of no literal use to us. His appearance on the station intrigued us, but nothing more," the Illusive Man exclaimed. "Now, if your report is finished, we can transfer Subject Icarus to Project Phoenix for disse-"

"Hold on! I'm not done here! You think I'm just going to let you take the kid from near-death to be dissected for your sick experiments. If you don't want emotional problems getting in the way, then you should quit sending me to find you dirty little secrets; it's bad for our "mutual" agreement as you call it. No absolutely not!"

"Don't get high-and-mighty on me Shepard, his very existence changes everything!" the man exclaimed, raising his voice as he took a drink out of his glass.

"Changes what?!" the commander shouted, "your experiments has no regard for human life, everything is for your edge, nothing more."

"Our work is for humanity. You are a prime example of that," the man shot back, smiling as he did.

"Maybe, but I won't continue your so long traditions. He stays…for now."

"Well, be my guest Shepard," the Illusive Man sighed, taking a seat in front of the QEC, "Humanity only knows that your team needs another man for the Collector home world."

"I decide who's on my team, but this kid, no way. He's too unstable. Mordin and Chakwas already found suppressants I haven't even heard of. And also he's been a human pin-cushion. I don't need another Cerberus-hating Jack."

The Illusive Man took another puff of his cigarette, solemnly saying, "Very well, good work Shepard, continue your…progress."

"Connection Terminated, Shepard," EDI exclaimed.

"Bah, Thank you EDI," Shepard said, just before stomping out of the room, her armor still on from the previous mission. But her patience was wearing thin enough from that entire mission. Despite the Illusive Man's attempts at consoling her feelings about their experiments; in her eyes, Cerberus was still bastards. Bastards like the pirates on Torfan. She wasn't going let them just have another pin cushion to prod at.

Stopping midway from the Research laboratory, she thought to herself; thinking of all the people Cerberus had actually still had in their clutches.

"_Bastard probably doesn't even care…they have more where this kid came from...But what the fuck to with him?!"_

"Shit! I have enough problems with the Reapers and the collectors," she yelled out, her voice echoing in the hallway, "Now there's someone who doesn't even know where he is…" Her thoughts stopped midway, focusing back on the man currently in her ship's medical bay. "I need answers," she whispered to herself, "Hah! I need a reality check too! Magic…"

"_But you know…weirder things have happened."_

Shepard immediately jumped in her boots, staring at the door to the armory. Whatever she had just heard…it wasn't anyone or anything she could see…and she wasn't talking to herself…

"EDI? Did you just say something?"

"No Commander."

"Thanks EDI…logging off for now."

"Logging you out Shepard."

"…What the flying hell?" she mumbled. Confident that whatever it was had stopped, the thought had halted, and she head towards the Research lab, and then onward to the CIC to which she would head to the medical bay on the crew's Quarters As she passed through the CIC, Shepard was stopped for a moment, by Yeoman Kelly no less.

"Commander if you have a moment?" the yeoman asked.

"What is it Chambers?" the commander asked, restarting her stride towards the elevator, rushing passed the yeoman's post, with Chambers hot in pursuit.

"Well, it's about our new guest," Kelly said edging towards the commander as she waited for the elevator to arrive.

"We don't have a guest Kelly," Celest shot at the young yeoman. "He's only here till we find out what to do with him." The elevator doors finally sprung open, the two both entered the large freighter. As the door shut behind them, the two stood there, each not uttering a word for a few seconds, before the commander broke the silence. "…Ok. What do you want to know?"

"It's..." the yeoman started off, "not really what I want to know Commander. The Illusive Man had sent over more details over Subject Icarus from some recovered information from _Asclepius Cell. _As you know…I am a certified psychologist."

"Chambers…" the commander grumbled, pressing the palm of her hand towards her still masked face before looking back at the yeoman, "after Torfan, my mind was picked and prodded by psychologists and scientists…All of them saying I was unfit for duty. I honestly hate everything about that profession. And the people down there all had much more experience than you…They were experimenting on him. You'll just freak him out honestly. You can have access if and when it's suitable, Understood Chambers?"

"Yes Commander," the yeoman said, saluting the commander. The elevator finally stopped, the doors opening wide as the two arrived at the Crew Quarters. Standing in front of them was a rather large krogan, clad in steel-colored armor, blue eyes staring into the elevator at the two humans.

"Shepard," the krogan snorted.

"Grunt," Celest replied, stepping out of the elevator an passing the unnatural krogan. Grunt stepped into the elevator as Shepard pass him, staring at Kelly who stood there.

"Oh." Celest said, stopping in her tracks and looking back at the krogan. Taking the Claymore from the spinal mag-lock on her armor, she threw the large shotgun at the krogan. Grunt caught the weapon in mid-air; immediately unfolding in his hands, the krogan sized the weapon in his hands, grinning as he looked down the sight of the gun. The krogan emitted a guttural snicker, making the commander smile at the…gleeful krogan?

"Saw that and thought of what you told me earlier…better than buying the expensive bastard son of a cannon."

"Yeah!" the krogan roared, laughing maniacally as he lowered the weapon. Kelly stepped to the side, away from the krogan looking a bit worried. Celest merely laughed underneath her mask, letting the elevators doors shut as she left Kelly and the super-krogan alone.

"_Well that just made my day a bit brighter." _The commander thought to herself. She finally walked away from the elevator, passing several of the Cerberus personnel, waving them off with a salute as she headed towards the medical bay.

As the doctor continued to record the report, the patient laid silently on the table. Despite what Shepard and her team said they had witnessed, she did not find any physical abnormalities in the patient's body. During the short stay in her medical bay, the patient had exhibited unusual brain activity, and short moments of lucidity. There had been over three small bursts of the patient gaining consciousness. However there was that, and of course the slip back into unconsciousness. While it was strange for someone to slip in and out of consciousness, it wasn't abnormal for someone to suffer from shock. The patient was obviously young by standards, but it was clear that he had fighting experience from the field reports from Shepard. Still it was strange. She started to read her own report back to herself. Quickly reviewing the data she presented, she started to enter the last bit of her entry.

". . . In conclusion, patient suffers from massive trauma to upper arms and torso, also experience from early childhood trauma. Likely abuse, possibly resulting in an unhealthy mental state; it is also likely that the patient suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, either from an early childhood incident or the experimentation performed by Cerberus Operatives.

Needle marks are still present on the patient, confirmed by evidence procured by Commander Shepard, created by one Dr. Eisley. After reviewing that evidence, I can only agree with Dr. Eisley's early assessments that the patient suffers from physical degeneration, there is evidence of bone degeneration and a heighten metabolism. Without proper care, the patient's body can break down if the patient lacks proper nutrition or from prolonged exposure to septic environments. The patient has suffered from an increased condition during his captivity by Cerberus operatives…it is likely they did not care in regards to their studies.

Finally, the patient has not been identified on any Council or Alliance census; however he has been identified on the records supplied to us by Commander Shepard and Cerberus records. I cannot say what Commander Shepard has reported is realistic or not. Human or of any race biotics of the described magnitude do not exist."

Dr. Chakwas saved and exited the report, shutting down the terminal leaving her seat. Turning towards a scanner on the other side of the room, she looked at the current progress report that the machine had.

"Hmm, better send this blood culture over to Mordin…needs to confirm these high element zero levels. I wonder…" the doctor pondered.

"Wonder what Doc?" a familiar voice said. The doctor jumped a bit in her shoes, turning around to see the commander, still armored head-to-toe.

"Ah Shepard, you gave me a scare…" Chakwas said, holding a hand over her heart, "I didn't even hear the door."

"Well, we were trained to be killer's doctor," Shepard said, her mask distorting the snorted chuckle she made.

"If by 'we' you mean the N7…I guess you would be correct," the medical officer replied.

"Well of course. But anyways, you were saying?"

"Well…it's about our guest…"

"Oh great…" Celest sighed. "What's wrong now?"

"Well it's nothing definitive Shepard, but the man you saved today has had quite the experience. He's perfectly human as it is…I don't see any evidence what you reported."

"Doctor if I was right about the Reapers… just trust me…I know what I saw… Kasumi and Garrus saw the same thing. There's nothing human about him." Shepard looked over at the table briefly, the biotic still resting peacefully on the table. A few hours ago he was as wild as a rampaging krogan… _"Hell he threw a rampaging krogan…" _Shepard pondered looking back at Chakwas, listening as the women continued to talk. But as the good doctor continued to blather on about the biotic, a sound drew her attention back to the table, Icarus was stirring. She quickly nudged Chakwas on the arm, pointing the doctor's attention towards medical table.

"What the bloody…Shepard help me here." The doctor shouted, loud enough for the crew in the barracks to hear.

"What's wrong?" Shepard asked.

"I'm trying to keep him in a medically induced coma…but this is the second time since I put him under to work on his shoulder."

"For, what?"

"The man has puzzling neural issues, similar to yours two years ago. I'm wondering if he was exposed to a beacon. And of course there's other anomalies as well. "

"Like I was on Eden Pri- wait...Shit!" Shepard lunged at the man, pushing him down on the table, trying to keep him still. A snap was heard. The shoulder bone under Shepard's hand had re-broken, despite the advanced medicinal techniques to heal it; it was rather still too fresh of a mend. The man struggled underneath her grip, which was beginning to loosen. Despite the biotic's stature, he was quite strong. Clearly he didn't need his abilities all the time. Or did he?

As Chakwas was activating her Omni-tool to send another batch of suppressants and painkillers into the patients system, the "biotic's" aura increased slightly, slamming his glowing fist into Shepard's breastplate, sending Shepard backwards, slamming her into desk behind her. To Chakwas' amazement, not saying that didn't already surprise her, she sure wasn't expecting this. The man reached up for her, grabbing her throat tightly, tight enough for her to struggle for air. Her Omni-tool deactivated, the injection of the coma-induced drug cocktail vanishing with it. They stood there for a second, staring at each, but something took her attention away for a split second, and it wasn't Shepard.

The fact that the man's arm was at all usable shocked her. The bone had entirely re-broken from Shepard's slam. But here it was in her sight. The bones, under the sleeve of the patient's shirt and his skin was moving, the crackle of bones and veins popping out under the skin. The man layer, there as calm as ever, as if nothing was going on at all. The crackle and popping finally stopped as the man loosened his grip.

Shepard grunted in pain as her head impacted the side of the desk, the rush of pain freezing her for a second from both the slam into her chest and her head. Shepard, felt a major throb on her head, immediately, pulling off the recon mask, her hair falling out as she gripped the back of her head. She pulled back one hand, seeing the small patch of blood present on her glove. She felt almost sick to her stomach as the dizziness set in, but as that did, so did rage.

She looked on at the scene before her, Icarus with his hand around Karin's neck…She wasn't going to let anything happen.

"Karin!" She yelled out rushing towards the table. Taking her fist and pulling it back behind her head, she saw nothing but red. There are situations in the world to which we know that people recognize an incident in their lives, even if there is no recognition to anyone else. To Shepard, this could have just been Torfan all over again. She immediately slammed her fist into the patient's head, knocking him out as hard as she could. The man closed his eyes, whatever he was thinking wasn't even a glitter in his mind. The man's hand released the doctor's throat; she quickly breathed in much needed air grabbing her throat as the soreness and pain started to set in. Shepard just stood as the doctor looked at her, both of them regaining their composure. The blood from the back of Celest's head started to run down her face as she looked down at the man, her hands balled up into fists as if she wanted to continue pelting the man. But she did not.

After a few moments of regaining their thoughts, Chakwas took the opportunity to speak first;

"*_panting as she spoke* _I should probably look at that wound Commander…" the doctor said, her breathing starting to relax. Her voice was still hoarse from the strangling.

"Look at yourself, Karin... I'll be fine," Celest said, clearing inching towards moving the door of the medical bay.

"Commander." The doctor clearly wasn't fooling around, her voice still as motherly as possible. Shepard stopped in her place, quickly turning around and heading for the other table. Her head was still pounding, it as if a flash grenade had just exploded in the room…if that had happened she would most likely be blind, let alone be able to sock the young patient in the dome. As she passed the good doctor, she quietly spoke, holding a bit of anger as she did;

"I guess I should brief Ms. Chambers…"

* * *

As EDI was locking the Normandy for its night cycle, she began her daily task of examining the video surveillance of the ship's inner halls. During this time, she would log anyone's movement on the floors, also alerting anyone of importance if there was a disturbance at this time of night. As she did this, the halls remained empty; everyone was resting for the next mission that Shepard would point the crew towards. But something caught EDI's eye…well her visual sensors…well more like her audio recorders. A voice, singing in the most casual sense. Without a care in the world. EDI quickly went through each of the crew's audio logs, even those of the specialists that the Commander had recruited Mr. Moreau, and the Commander herself. None of the audio logs had matched the voice she heard. She looked for where the voice was coming from, only finding the origin of the voice in a milli-second later. She activated the holographic terminal in the crew quarters, her holographic figure appearing out of thin air in the galley.

She saw the shadow of a small stature man, lying on the main table of the galley, the sound no longer emanating from the room. The man breathed in as he did, and began once more to sing the melody, as best as he could of course.

EDI simply listened, as he obviously either did not notice her, or he did not care. She listened, and it was interesting.

"_Time was once a blessing  
but long journeys are made longer  
when alone within.  
__Take spirit from the long ago  
but do not dwell in lands no longer yours."_

"Be certain in need,  
and the path will emerge  
to a home tomorrow  
and time will again  
be the joy it once was."

_~Endure_

* * *

_**(A/N: And here is the next chapter, I might cry. So far you've guys have been awesome and patient. I had the first half literally done a week and a half ago…and forgot to right the rest. Brilliant I know right? Anyways, enjoy reading these guys! I hope it at least makes your day a bit brighter. I know it did mine when I finally finished writing. But anyway, keep on reviewing and passing on the awesome advice! Thank you guys so far and just wait till the next few chapters! Who knows…we might see a loyalty mission or two… after Shepard and the Warden stop butting heads and finally learn to get along…those crazy kids. And holy damn, and Author's Codex…I'm shocked. If you happen to notice…the possession entry is taken from the Dragon Age Codex. It simply explains it better. The Indoctrination has been edited for the story's sake. If you also notice…indoctrination and possession…sound similar do they not?)**_

_**Author's Codex:**_

_**The Understanding of Indoctrination: A Brief 2185 Edition of Physical Science Galactic**_

_**By Senari T'nak of Physical Science**_

_**While the "supposed Reaper hypothesis" has not been directly as of now, the process of indoctrination has become a high concern from high-ranking intelligence officials, causing worry that indoctrination was used during the Eden Prime Fiasco. This document will briefly explain the implications and hypothesis behind the rumors of indoctrination. The precise mechanics of the indoctrination effect are poorly understood. It is believed that the Reapers generate an electromagnetic field, waves of infrasound and ultrasound, or both in order to stimulate areas of a victim's brain and limbic system. The resulting effect varies depending on the intent of the Reaper: the victim may suffer headaches and hallucinations, have feelings of "being watched" or paranoia, or come to view the Reaper itself with superstitious awe much like the geth during the Eden Prime Fiasco. Ultimately, the Reaper gains the ability to use the victim's body to amplify its signal, manifesting as voices within the victim's mind.**_

_**Supposed victims of indoctrination have reported whispers you can't ignore, that compel you to do things without knowing why. Over days, perhaps a week of exposure to an anything Reaper oriented signal, the subject stops thinking for them and just obeys, eventually becoming a mindless servant. The mental damage from indoctrination is severe and permanent. It should be known that through the use of Indoctrination, the supposed Reaper threat is able to assume control of the completely subservient indoctrinated. This hypothesis was given by one Commander Celestine Shepard of the System Alliance, savior of the Council and the Citadel.**_

_**It is proposed that the "Reapers" arrive from dark space every fifty thousand years to eradicate all life from the galaxy. Doing this they require indoctrinated slaves to bend to their will and to use to destroy galactic civilization. As of now, no evidence has risen to support this claim, which leads experts and officials to dismiss this claim.**_

_**Divine Andrastian Archives of the Ninth Age of Dragon**_

_**Grand Cathedral, **__**Val Royeaux, Orlais**_

_**Under documentation of Seeker Ernesto Avin of the Antivan Chapter**_

_**~From**__** The Maker's First Children, **__**by Bader, Senior Enchanter of Ostwick, 8:12 Blessed.**_

"_**Why do demons seek to possess the living?**_

_**History claims they are malevolent spirits, the first children of the Maker, angry at their creator for turning from them and jealous of those creations he considered superior. They stare across the Veil at the living and do not understand what they see, yet they know they crave it. They desire life; they pull the living across the Veil when they sleep and prey on their psyche with nightmares. Whenever they can, they cross the Veil into our world to possess it outright.**_

_**We know that any demon will seek to possess a mage, and upon doing so will create an abomination. Most of the world does not know, however, that the strength of an abomination depends entirely on the power of the demon that possesses the mage. This is true, in fact, of all possessed creatures. One demon is not the same as any other.**_

_**Demons can, for instance, be classified. Enchanter Brahm's categorization of demons into that portion of the psyche they primarily prey upon has held since the Tower Age.**_

_**According to Brahm, the weakest and most common of demons are those of rage. They are the least intelligent and most prone to violent outbursts against the living. They expend their energies quickly, the most powerful of them exhibiting great strength and occasionally the ability to generate fire.**_

_**Next are the demons of hunger. In a living host they become cannibals and vampires, and within the dead they feed upon the living. Theirs are the powers of draining, both of life force and of mana.**_

_**Next are the demons of sloth, the first on Brahm's scale that are capable of true intelligence. In its true form, this demon is known as a shade, a thing which is nearly indistinct and invisible, for such is sloth's nature. It hides and stalks, unaware, and when confronted, it sows fatigue and apathy.**_

_**Demons of desire are amongst the most powerful, and are the ones most likely to seek out the living and actively trick them into a deal. These demons will exploit anything that can be coveted—wealth, power, lust—and they will always end up getting far more than they give. A desire demon's province is that of illusions and mind control.**_

_**Strongest of all demons are those of pride. These are the most feared creatures to loose upon the world: Masters of magic and in possession of vast intellect, they are the true schemers. It is they who seek most strongly to possess mages, and will bring other demons across the Veil in numbers to achieve their own ends—although what that might be has never been discovered. A greater pride demon, brought across the veil, would threaten the entire world."**_


End file.
